The state government has turned two private hospitals in Salt Lake and New Town into dedicated Covid-19 treatment centres as the demand is soaring among patients for more comfortable facilities.

Health department sources said they were speaking to many other private hospitals in the city, requesting them to earmark large sections of their facilities for treatment of patients diagnosed with coronavirus infection.

ILS Hospital in Salt Lake and Ohio Hospital in New Town are the ones that have been requisitioned by the state government for treatment of Covid-19 patients. Officials of ILS Hospitals said they had received the health department's notification and were planning to shift the patients, including neo-natals, to other hospitals.

“In view of the emergent situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, 66 private healthcare facilities for management of Covid-19 affected patients have already been notified as Covid designated hospitals. Now, in order to increase the facility, the following hospitals will be notified as Covid designated hospital...,” a health department notice stated, mentioning ILS, Salt Lake, and Ohio Hospital.

ILS Hospital has been reserved for the treatment of Covid-19 patients of levels one and two, which means those suffering from severe acute respiratory infection and other symptoms of the disease but are yet to test positive.

Ohio Hospital is for patients of levels three and four — those who have tested positive and with mild or severe symptoms. This facility should have ventilators and other life support equipment, officials said.

The government-run Infectious Diseases and Beleghata General Hospital and MR Bangur Hospital, and an annexe of AMRI Hospitals Salt Lake, a private facility, were earlier designated as Covid-19 treatment centres in the city.

“The demand for beds in a private hospital for people with Covid-19 symptoms is rising by the day. Many people don't want to go to government facilities such as MR Bangur Hospital or the Beleghata ID hospital,” an official in the health department said.

The state government had a few days ago made a fresh appeal to private hospitals to dedicate more beds and wings to the Covid battle. An official of a private hospital said they had turned down the government’s request to set aside 100 beds for coronavirus patients.

A resident of Howrah who is running a temperature and suffering from respiratory distress was trying since Saturday morning to get a bed at a private hospital. All hospitals said their isolation units were full.

Finally, late in the evening, he could get himself admitted at a private hospital in south Calcutta.

At AMRI Salt Lake, only patients referred by the government can be admitted. But officials of the hospital said they were flooded with requests from people for direct admission every day.

The facility has 51 beds, 39 of which are functional. On Saturday, all 39 were full.

“We have a shortage of personnel, so 12 beds could not be made functional. Already there is a waiting list of six patients at government-run Covid-19 hospitals who need to be shifted. So, the government today requested us to make the 12 beds functional as soon as possible. We are trying to make them operational by Monday,” said Rupak Barua, group CEO, AMRI.

Metro has reported that patients have complained about poor facilities at MR Bangur Hospital. A youth who was admitted in the hospital had said at least two bodies of Covid-19 patients were not removed for hours from the ward.

His mother, who was admitted in another ward, had alleged that an elderly woman had fallen and there was no one from the hospital staff around to help her get up.

“The demand for getting admitted to a private facility with clean washrooms and other basic amenities is growing. The facilities are needed all the more because a Covid-19 patient has to stay 14 to 20 days in hospital,” said a health official.

Another reason for the soaring demand of private hospitals is shortage of ventilators at state-run facilities, government sources said.

In the initial days of the outbreak, the state government had appealed to private hospitals to keep isolation beds ready. Many private hospitals in the city did so but only a few beds were set aside.

Many of them are allegedly not admitting Covid-19 patients or those with symptoms.

“Our isolation beds are for patients who are testing positive for the coronavirus after getting admitted. They are then shifted to government facilities. We are not admitting patients with fever or other Covid-19 symptoms,” said the CEO of a private hospital.