To further streamline the handling of corona-positive patients in Delhi, the AAP government on Friday issued fresh SOPs (Standard Operating Procedure) to all Covid-19 hospitals in the capital and sought information on beds for the economically weaker section (EWS). The Kejriwal government which has been receiving widespread criticism and complaints about mishandling of patients took two major decisions on solve the issues. It issued new guidelines to avoid delay in admitting patients and asked all the major hospitals to inform the government about treatment of patients from the EWS category.
There are constant reports in Delhi that the hospitals are either not admitting the patient or are taking too long to admit, due to which patients and their caretakers are suffering. The government is also facing another challenge of treatment of poor. Now, the Delhi government has announced that the number of beds reserved under the EWS quota to be used for poor patients in hospitals for treatment of Corona. It has also asked hospitals to give information on how many corona and non-corona patients received treatment under the EWS quota.
According to the Delhi government, the hospitals which have a capacity of more than 50 beds and were given land at concessional rates must keep 10% of beds reserved under the EWS quota. The list of these hospitals includes some big hospitals like Max Saket, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Moolchand Hospital, Maha Durga Charitable, Saroj Hospital and Heart Institute, Batra Hospital & Medical Research Center, Max Patparganj Hospital, Dr. BL Kapoor Memorial Hospital, St. Stephen’s Hospital, among others.
As per the new guidelines, if a patient is not treated according to the protocols, denied or delayed admission, or faces other issues, he or she can call the helpline number with one-line dedicated 24×7 for this purpose. The new rules clearly say that patients should be discharged only when they are tested Corona negative.