Health Minister of Karnataka, Dr K Sudhakar has urged all the private and government medical colleges to allot all of their beds for the Covid-19 infections patients within a period of three to four days.
Although, the reservation can be excluded for cases such as emergency beds, mother and child care and dialysis patients, said Sudhakar.
The reservation allotment will be applied for 12 private medical colleges along with four government hospitals who are associated to two state run colleges which comprises of Victoria, Bowling, Charaka, and HSIS Ghosha).
Dr Sudhakar said, “The state hopes to get an additional 7,500 beds by doing this. All hospitals with less than 30 beds should only admit non-Covid patients. All private hospitals with more than 30 beds have to now reserve 80% beds for government-referred Covid patients, including ICU beds, ventilator beds, high-dependency units and high flow nasal cannula beds. This is an emergency situation.”
Private Hospitals’ and Nursing Homes’ Association (PHANA) stated that all the hospitals with lesser than 30 beds added up to a mere count of 100-200 beds in Bengaluru.
“If 80% of beds are reserved for government-referred Covid patients, where will private patients go? Let the government reserve 50% beds for government-referred Covid patients, allot 30% for private quota Covid patients and keep 20% for non-Covid patients.” Dr H M Prasanna, President, PHANA further said, “We also need to discuss where cardiac patients will be accommodated. I will discuss this issue with the minister.”
Apart from the category exempted by government, cases such as polytrauma, burns, psychiatry, oncology, and thalassemia patients would also require beds just as much said Dr Sanjay Lewin, medical superintendent, St John’s Hospital, which is one of the 12 private medical colleges in Bengaluru.
Dr Lewin said, “Thalassemia patients require regular transfusions every three weeks.” He further said, “There are also those with haemophilia, suffered a stroke, neurosurgical interventions, liver conditions and heart attacks. These are essential services that can’t be interfered with at the expense of Covid-19.”
Lewin further marked that the non-Covid outpatient numbers had dropped down and his medical colleges were mostly serving the Covid-19 patients without the orders issued by the government.
