Bengaluru currently has less than 300 paediatric Covid beds, far lower than the estimation made by the Dr Devi Shetty committee that the city may require 1,838 to 3,677 beds during the third wave, which is expected in August-September this year.
"We have only 294 paediatric Covid beds. Of them, 94 are paediatric ICU beds while 51 beds have paediatric ventilators," said a BBMP official who attended the first-ever meeting of the 14-member committee of paediatric experts set up recently by the civic body.
The committee met on Thursday to chalk out plans and recommendations for handling the third wave of Covid-19, which is expected to affect a large number of children.
In the private quota, only children whose parents can afford to bear Covid treatment costs can be admitted and treated. In the second wave, the major load of paediatric Covid patients was borne by Rainbow Children's Hospital, which reserved 143 beds to treat children having Covid. The rest were sent to the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital and the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health (IGICD).
"The BBMP can set up 2,000 or 2,500 paediatric beds, but we don't believe 45,000-odd children will be affected during the peak of the third wave," the official said.
Palike officials insist that manpower, rather than existing paediatric infrastructure, is the problem. "Karnataka has only 1,500 practising paediatricians, out of whom 1,000 are in Bengaluru. The state may have a total of 3,000 registered paediatricians," the official added.
Paediatric nurses
Currently, an adequate number of paediatric nurses are not available to man three shifts in children's hospitals. "Training paramedic and paediatric nursing staff is the main recommendation that the BBMP will focus on," the official said. A three-day hands-on workshop in paediatric care can be conducted for practising nurses.
According to the official, the BBMP has 12 paediatricians working in its 27 maternity homes, and it is setting up evening paediatric clinics where even private practitioners can provide consultations.
Another recommendation by the committee is to identify a hospital for every ward where a child can be given emergency care and be stabilised. Dr Naresh P, paediatrician at Manipal Hospital, Malleswaram, and a member of the expert committee, said that identifying at least one hospital with a trained paediatrician or nurse would at least help in the collection of samples.
The committee has also recommended training junior MBBS doctors to triage children and watch out for Day 3 symptoms like fatigue and lack of appetite.
Dr Sanjay K S, Director, IGICH, has called for setting up paediatric ICU beds in KC General, Jayanagar General and CV Raman General hospitals.
Situation at IGICH
As for the IGICH, he said the state-run children's hospital would double its 25 paediatric ICU and 25 neonatal ICU beds. In all, the hospital expects to have 100 ICU beds as it has seen 90 cases of multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children so far. The IGICH will have 350 non-Covid beds and 150 Covid beds.
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