In contrast to the over 12 million population in the city, the number of beds in the Trauma and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) wards and beds in the ICUs in the three main BMC hospitals and a major state-run hospital collectively is a mere 103.

While these hospitals have ICU beds for various departments — like neo-natal (NICU), paediatric (PICU), surgical (SICU) and others — the overwhelming number of accident cases in the city ensures that there are rarely any vacant ICU beds to accommodate the cases. Thousands of patients pass through the doors of these hospitals each day, and the disproportionate ratio with regard to the number of beds is quite evident.

MiD DAY visited KEM, Sion and Nair hospitals — the three major BMC hospitals in the city — and found that there are around 83 ICU beds in total. This gives rise to concerns as critical patients turning up at peripheral hospitals are referred to these three hospitals. There have been instances wherein patients in urgent need of an ICU bed could not get admitted in these three hospitals, as every single bed was occupied.

Senior doctors at the BMC-run hospitals feel an urgent need for the number of trauma beds to be increased and admit that with proposals for other super specialty procedures pending at their end, this issue is yet to be addressed.