India May Need 5 Lakh ICU Beds In Next Few Weeks, Noted Surgeon Predicts

COVID-19 India: Noted surgeon Dr Devi Prasad Shetty acknowledged that all his speculation about the number of COVID-19 patients and the estimate of ICU beds needed may be wrong. "But what if I am right and it is too late?"

Forecasting that the COVID-19 pandemic is only going to get worse, noted surgeon Dr Devi Prasad Shetty has said India will need an extra 5 lakh ICU beds, 2 lakh nurses and 1.5 lakh doctors in the next few weeks, and also suggested radical solutions to meet the mountainous challenge. At present, India has only 75,000 to 90,000 ICU beds and almost all are already occupied - when the second wave of the pandemic hasn't even reached its peak yet, he said. India is reporting about 3.5 lakh cases a day, and some experts say the number could go up to 5 lakh cases daily at its peak. While most of the newspaper headlines and prime time television coverage have been over the lack of oxygen for the patients in ICUs, "I am having sleepless nights for the next headline, which is going to be that patients are dying in ICUs because there are no nurses and doctors to take care of the patients," he said. "And this is going to happen. I do not doubt it now," said Dr Shetty, the chairman and founder of Narayana Health, a chain of 21 medical centres in India, in his online address at the Symbiosis Golden Jubilee Lecture Series in Pune recently.