Bhubaneswar: With the steep rise in coronavirus cases, the state government Thursday asked all the private hospitals to reserve 50 per cent of general as well as ICU beds for treatment of Covid-19 patients.
The order will be applicable to the registered private hospitals having 30 beds or more. The provision for reservation of beds may go upto 100 per cent when need arises, Additional Chief Secretary of Health department Pradipta Mohapatra said in a letter to all the district Collectors, municipal commissioners and chief district medical & public health officers.
Mohapatra asked the private hospitals to refrain from referring Covid patients to other hospitals when positive cases are detected.
“It is observed that private hospitals are treating the non-Covid cases, but when they find such patients Covid-19 positive during the treatment they immediately request the government machinery to shift the case to a government Covid facility,” he stated in the letter.
The government has also observed that private hospitals are not admitting the Covid positive patients with a plea that they do not have Covid beds.
Many private hospitals have designated very few beds for Covid patients. Therefore, load on government Covid facilities has increased, the ACS said.
“The hospital shall charge reasonable fees from patients and refrain from collecting exorbitant fees, failing which action as deemed fit will be taken against the hospital,” Mohapatra warned.
The Health department also prescribed fee structure for the private hospitals. As per the price chart, a private hospital can charge Rs 1,200 to Rs 3,000 per day for a general bed and Rs 1,750 for consumables. For patients in ICU without ventilator support, they will be paid Rs 10,000 to Rs 17,000 while the hospitals can raise bill ranging from Rs 12,000 to Rs 18,000 for ICU with ventilator.
Mohapatra further instructed the private hospitals to charge additional costs for the medical or surgical emergencies during treatment of Covid patients as per Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) package.
The private hospitals were directed to open help desks accessible both physically and telephonically for counselling of relatives of patients and share information on status of patients’ health with the attendants regularly.
