Intensive care units in the context of COVID-19 in Nepal: current status and need of the hour

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has created havoc all over the world. Even the most developed countries are facing shortage of intensive care unit beds more than ever, and despite their best efforts increasing number of people are losing lives mainly due to COVID-19 induced acute respiratory distress syndrome. Nepal, with its poor healthcare infrastructure, will certainly suffer the loss of its citizens because of increased need of already overwhelmed intensive care unit beds. More concerning is the limited number of available trained healthcare workers required to run Level III intensive care unit which will not be adequate to deal with the surge of critically ill patients. The aim of this article is to explore the possible ways to build our intensive care unit capacity to cope with this pandemic that can be useful for advanced planning to cope with the probable surge of critically ill patients with COVID-19.