The state health department has decided to reduce the number of Covid beds it had requisitioned in private hospitals across the state in early days of the pandemic because “rates of hospitalisation of Covid patients are…going down”.
The director of state health services, Ajay Chakraborty, issued an order on Wednesday allowing requisitioned beds at 55 private hospitals across Bengal to be used for treating non-Covid patients.
“Total numbers of active cases are coming down gradually and rates of hospitalisation of Covid patients are also going down. Under these present circumstances, it has been decided that these beds of private hospitals requisitioned by the government may be released in phases,” reads the order.
The order mentions that the beds may again be taken over, “with a three days’ notice”, if required.
A bulletin issued by the health department on Thursday said Bengal recorded 409 new Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours. Wednesday’s bulletin said 412 new cases had been recorded in the preceding 24 hours.
The government had requisitioned 72 beds (60 general and 12 intensive care unit) at AMRI Hospitals Salt Lake for Covid patients. Fifty general beds have been released.
Of the 113 beds (83 general and 30 intensive care unit) requisitioned at Desun Hospital, 63 general beds and 20 intensive care unit beds have been released.
All 100 Covid beds at the KPC Medical College and Hospital have been released. Seventy five of them are general beds, 13 are intensive care unit beds and 12 are high dependency unit beds.
The high dependency unit is a ward where patients who need more medical support than those on general beds but less support than those in intensive care units are kept.
Covid patients requiring advanced care could be brought to these hospitals from any place in Bengal.
Some of the other private hospitals where Covid beds have been released are ILS Golabari, Narayana Hospital Old Building (West Bank Hospital) in Howrah and Charnock Hospital in Chinar Park.
Patients allotted requisitioned beds at private hospitals are treated for free if they are sent there by a state-run hospital or the health department. After a patient’s discharge, the hospital sends the bill to the state government and gets reimbursed.
“If a Covid patient is referred to our hospital by the health department, we admit and treat the patient for free,” said Rupak Barua, the group chief executive officer of AMRI Hospitals.
But Covid patients approaching the hospitals directly — without any referral by the state health department — have to pay for the treatment even if they are alloted requisitioned beds, said Barua.
“We try not to keep Covid bed vacants. If a requisitioned bed is vacant and Covid patient approaches us without any referral from the health department, we will allot the bed to him or her. But the patient has to pay for the treatment,” Barua said.
A senior official of the health department said that since the rate of hospitalisation of Covid patients had declined, the department felt people with other illnesses should have more scope for hospitalisation.
Around 70 per cent of the requisitioned Covid beds at AMRI Salt Lake had remained vacant for the past month, Barua said. “But the intensive care unit occupancy during the period was between 95 and 100 per cent,” he said.
