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Delhi govt tells private hospitals to reserve 20% beds for Covid patients

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain says 117 private hospitals and nursing homes should keep 20% beds reserved for coronavirus patients.

With Covid-19 cases continuing unabated, the Delhi government has issued an order asking all private hospitals and nursing homes to reserve 50 beds or 20% of their total capacity for corona patients. Currently, there are 14 hospitals in Delhi in which corona patients are being treated. Of these, three are state government hospitals, four central and eight private ones.

In view of the situation in the hospitals where corona-positive patients are being treated, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said that 117 private hospitals and nursing homes should keep 20% beds reserved for corona patients. On this order PSRI Hospital’s CEO, Dr. Dipak Shukla, told The Daily Guardian that “The majority of private hospitals in Delhi receive patients for multiple specialities from the city and many states of the country who come for tertiary care treatment.

This 20% reservation for Covid-19 will reduce the hospitalisation in these private hospitals for such patients, who are in need of multi-speciality care. Covid-19 patient care requires very strict isolation norms with the dedicated separate entry, exit, lifts and even ambulances, as advised by the Delhi government earlier. To my best understanding, good percentage of government hospital ICU and non-ICU beds are vacant, but private hospital Covid-19 beds remain 80% occupied.

It indicates the need for improvement in government hospital’s Covid-19 patient care, so that people can develop trust in them. Patient care in the private sector should be kept in reserve if government facility is fully occupied.” Dr Sisir Paul, MD of Rainbow Hospital, told The Daily Guardian, “There is a national disaster and we are ready with to follow government guidelines on Covid-19.” Delhi Medical Council President Dr Arun Gupta welcomed the initiative by the government.

“In this hour of crisis everyone should join hands and make full use of available health care facilities in the city. It’s good that option has been given to hospitals to increase capacity by 25%,” he said. The Delhi Health Minister told The Daily Guardian that if private hospitals reserve 20% beds for Covid-19 patients, they can increase 25 % extra beds in the hospital, so that “no patient is hurt”. “But the hospital will be able to charge 50% of these extra beds from the patients and for free treatment, there is government hospitals,” he said.

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