While patients are still struggling to secure ICU beds at designated hospitals for Covid-19 treatment, the government however maintains that there are no shortages of either ICU or general beds across the country.
Data compiled by Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) shows that 70% of the general beds and 45% of the intensive care unit (ICU) beds remain idle in dedicated Covid-19 treatment facilities in Bangladesh.
There are 6,075 beds and 149 ICUs in 16 Covid-19 dedicated hospitals in Dhaka city, according to the data.
The country has a total of 14,775 beds and 401 ICUs for the Covid-19 patients, while 4,449 patients are undergoing treatment at general beds, and 220 were admitted to the ICUs.
“There is no scarcity of ICUs and beds in the hospital for Covid-19 patients,” Additional Director General of DGHS Prof Nasima Sultana said during the virtual daily health bulletin on Monday.
Although some ICU beds are lying vacant in some departments of hospitals, including Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), they cannot be allocated to other patients, said Nasima.
“The ICU beds in DMCH are dedicated as per different departments. For example, ICU beds are dedicated for medicine, surgery, and gynecology departments. Even though some ICU beds are vacant in surgery departments, patients under the medicine ward will not be able to avail them as they might be needed for emergency operations,” she explained.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 15%–20% of Covid-19 cases require hospitalization, with around 15% of cases presenting severe symptoms, and 5% requiring intensive care.
