Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asked officials of both private and state government hospitals to increase the number of Covid beds. She also asked them to open more satellite units where Covid patients with mild symptoms can be admitted, some of those who attended the online meeting told Metro.
Mamata asked senior state government officials to ensure that there was no scarcity of oxygen in the state. Officials will have to ensure that no one hoards oxygen or sells it at a higher price.
The state government on Wednesday identified several crucial areas of Covid management like facilitation of hospitals admission, availability of ambulances, bed augmentation in hospitals, creation of new satellite facilities and funerals. Senior government officials have been entrusted with ensuring that all these facilities are rolled out and work smoothly.
During the meeting, state government officials told the chief minister that the state had 11,000 Covid beds on Wednesday.
“The chief minister told us to increase the number of beds. She told us to keep the commitments we made regarding bed augmentation. When the chief secretary told her that we have promised to augment beds within a week, she said to speed it up and complete the new bed addition before that deadline,” said an official of a private hospital who attended the meeting.
Recipients wait for their Covid-19 vaccine dose outside a health centre in Kasba on Wednesday. Picture by Gautam Bose
“She also asked all hospitals, both private and government, to set up more satellite facilities so that patients who have mild symptoms can be treated there. This will keep a lot of hospital beds free for patients who cannot do without hospital care,” said the official.
Addressing a news conference after the meeting, Mamata said that safe homes should be categorised into A, B and C grades. “The A grade is for more serious patients who should be transferred to hospitals next. The B grade is for those who are mild. The C grade should be for those who have no space at home to isolate themselves,” she said. “Hospital beds should be occupied only by those who need it. Those who do not require hospitalisation should be at home or in safe homes.”
“Our officials will see to it that there is no problem with oxygen availability. They will also ensure that there is no hoarding of oxygen to sell it at high price,” Mamata said.
The state government has given the responsibility of oxygen supply to two senior officials who will coordinate with all stakeholders to ensure a steady supply of oxygen.
In the meeting, the chief minister also suggested that the safe home or satellite units can also be used to keep patients who were in hospital earlier and need a few days observation before they can be discharged. “There are many patients who do not have any severe symptom after a few days but they are still kept in hospitals for observation before they are discharged. It seems that she suggested that these patients can be kept in satellite units for observation once they stop having any symptom. We can discharge the patients after a few days,” said an official of another private hospital.
The chief minister’s meeting with heads of hospitals from Malda via videoconferencing came in the wake of a rapid rise in infections and deaths from Covid-19 in the state. According to the state health department, 10,784 new Covid cases were reported in the state on Tuesday.
The rise in cases has resulted in a Covid bed crisis in hospitals despite several of them augmenting their bed strength. “We have increased our Covid bed count from 110 to 161 beds with 95 critical care beds. We have commissioned 32 beds in our satellite unit and plan to increase it to 50 by this weekend,” said an official of the Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences.
Peerless Hospital had 63 Covid beds on Wednesday, up from 40 a few days back.