Apollo and Vikram Hospitals shut outpatient department; penalised for not treating govt referred Covid-19 patients

Apollo Hospital, Jayanagar, and Vikram Hospital, Cunningham Road were forced to shut their outpatient departments (OPDs) on Tuesday for not treating Covid-19-19 patients referred by the BBMP. After 48 hours of OPD closure, if they continue to deny treating Covid-19 patients referred by the government, their registration/licence under the Karnataka Private Medical Establishment Act will be revoked, a circular issued on Tuesday said.

Dr Srinivas GA, District Health Officer, Bengaluru Urban, said, "When patients calling 1912 for a bed are referred to Apollo Hospital Jayanagar, they are telling the helpline that they don't have beds and refusing to treat them. But they are treating 60 Covid-19 patients in the hospital out of which 51 are those who are paying cash or other insurance patients. Only nine are those referred by the government. Even Vikram Hospital is doing the same thing."

The official says this has been happening from the past five days. "The hospital says it needs to train staff to treat Covid-19 patients but they have been admitting Covid-19 patients that come directly to the hospital. Even in Apollo Bannerghatta branch they are admitting Covid-19 patients that come directly to the hospital but they say they can't treat those Covid-19 patients referred by the government."

He also says despite having three branches in Bannerghatta Road, Malleshwaram and Jayanagar, the hospital group is not dedicating any one of the branches to Covid-19. Dr Srinivas said that only 60 beds in the Jayanagar branch were dedicated to Covid-19 and the other 40 beds were being used to admit outpatients.

Dr Govindaiah Yatheesh, Apollo Jayanagar Hospital unit head told DH, "We have to shut the OPD as per the notice of the department. Meanwhile, we will meet the department officials and clear misunderstandings. Anyway, during the lockdown, we did not expect many outpatients to come." Yatheesh said they could open up only 60 beds to Covid-19 treatment as 50% of his nursing staff and 60% of his housekeeping staff vanished the day they announced that his unit will be a dedicated Covid-19 hospital.

"When there are 22 ICU patients we have to maintain a nursing staff-patient ratio. A nurse can work only for six hours. I need 200 nurses in total but short of 90 nurses," he said.

Kamala Tulsidas, executive assistant to the CEO of Vikram Hospital, told DH, "We will adhere to the department's notice and shut our OPD. However, we do not want to comment on the denial of Covid-19 treatment to patients."