BBMP released notices for 7 private hospitals for not allocating enough beds for Covid-19 patients

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Sunday released notices for a count of 7 private hospitals in the cityfor not assigning the mandatory 50 % of beds as instructed by the government for the Covid-19 patients referred by the government.

BBMP Commissioner, Manjunath Prasad said the notices were released for license suspension of the seven private hospitals, according to the provisions of the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (KPME) Act.

Manjunath Prasad stated, “Today (Saturday), show cause notices have been issued to the following seven hospitals under the KPME Act for suspension of licenses. These hospitals have been directed to show cause within the next 24 hours as to why the KPME registration licenses should not be canceled.”

The seven private hospitals involved are Artyem Hospital, Rangadorai Memorial Hospital, Sanjeevani Hospital, Dr GVG Healthcare Pvt Ltd, Srinivas Hospital, Medstar Hospital and Nanadana Healthcare Services India Ltd.

According to BBMP, the aforesaid hospitals declined to allot high dependency unit, ICU and ventilator beds for Covid-19 patients indicated by the government. As per the government orders directed in June, hospitals which are under BBMP for Covid-19 treatment have to compulsorily allocate 50 % of their beds for the patients indicated by the BBMP. This order was put forth as there are limited number of beds in the government hospitals, and the order was a source of security for the low-income patients to obtain a bed for treatment of Covid-19. But, the seven hospitals limited the beds only to private patients, failing to comply by the BBMP and government orders and norms.

Manjunath added, “If no proper explanation is received within 24 hours along with compliance of reserving 50% beds for BBMP-sponsored COVID patients, the BBMP will be constrained to close down the OPDs at the first instance and thereafter all the existing patients admitted in these hospitals will be shifted to some other alternate hospitals and subsequently these hospitals will be closed down.”

In the notices directed to the hospitals, BBMP has asked about the information portal to be updated with details regarding the patients referred by BBMP and the private category. The Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust, which implemented the government order in June and compensates the bills of the hospitals on the behalf of the government, recently investigated the hospitals for violation of norms.