JOIN USPrivate hospitals not giving promised beds: BBMP chief
Private hospitals came under fire about the availability of beds for Covid-19 when BBMP Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad went on a surprise inspection on Sunday.
The civic body chief found that several private hospitals were economical with the truth with regard to providing beds to Covid-19 patients.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday evening, Prasad said he had called Sakra Hospital, Marathahalli, introducing himself as a BBMP employee, and sought to refer a Covid-19 patient. The hospital replied that it had no beds. While the hospital is required to provide half of its 300 beds for Covid, it had set aside just 60 beds, he said.
Prasad said that when he personally visited the hospital and checked with the management, they started giving excuses. “I warned to seal the outpatient department (OPD) and book them under the Disaster Management Act. In the next hour, they agreed to give 100 beds. This is how private hospitals are misleading us,” he said.
The Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences, which is required to provide half of its 1,000 beds, has given only 200 beds, according to Prasad. “The hospital cited a shortage of doctors and nurses among other reasons for not providing the remaining beds. I warned to seal the unused beds,” Prasad said.
The BBMP commissioner said notices would be served on hospitals to specify the number of beds they have and how many have been set aside for Covid-19 treatment.
Prasad asserted that there was a mismatch between the government data and the one provided by hospitals. “The government has calculated the capacity of each hospital and arrived at the figures. I’ll be issuing show-cause notices to all private hospitals tomorrow (Monday),” he said.
According to Prasad, the present system of fighting the disease through zonal control rooms was inadequate. “From the experience of conducting two elections, I can definitely say we need to decentralise the system. Each zone has five or six assembly constituencies. The pandemic can be better handled from constituency-level control rooms,” he added.
The commissioner said a three-member Covid care team would be seat up at the booth level. As each ward has 40 booths, authorities will be better equipped in contact tracing, caring and providing ambulances, he said.
This apart, the BBMP will test 40,000 people having Influenza Like Illness (ILI).