17 out of 31 pvt hosps refuse to turn into Covid-19 units

Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) efforts to increase the number of beds for Covid patients has met with a major obstacle as 17 out of 31 private hospitals which were asked to convert into dedicated covid hospitals (DCHs) have refused to do so. DCHs only treat Covid patients.
Jalaj Sharma, additional commissioner of NMC, told TOI that municipal commissioner Radhakrishnan B would take action against these hospitals soon.
TOI had earlier reported that only 28% of beds in 10 private hospitals were reserved for Covid patients. As per the NMC rules, they should reserve 80% of the beds for Covid patients.
While doctors offer various reasons for not turning their hospitals into DCHs, a large number of Covid patients have died due to lack of treatment in the past few days. Everyday, TOI receives frantic calls from relatives of patients who were not getting beds in any hospital. The hospitals that have refused to turn into DCHs include KRIMS, Khidmat, Midas and thirteen others.
“Being a respiratory centre we have to cater to both Covid and non-Covid patients. Turning into a complete covid centre will hamper our services to patients of other respiratory illnesses like asthma, TB and lung cancer. We are already treating Covid critical patients in our dedicated Covid wards” said Dr Sameer Arbat of KRIMS Hospital.
“Our hospital is not an intensive care facility. We don’t have ventilators or separate oxygen lines required for Covid-19 patients,” said Dr Arshad Ali of Khidmat Hospital.
“Most importantly, the main doctor who would have looked after the Covid-19 ward of this hospital is infected with the virus. He is undergoing treatment in isolation. We don’t have qualified manpower to deal with the Covid-19 critical and serious patients,” Dr Ali added.
Dr Shrikant Mukewar of Midas Hospital said that the life of hundreds of patients would be at risk if his hospital got converted into a Covid dedicated centre.
“Our hospital is situated in a multidisciplinary complex where many other hospitals and clinics are functioning. We don’t have a separate entry or exit point, not even a separate elevator. By admitting Covid-19 patients, we will put all the others at risk,” he said, adding that being a specialized centre, his hospital caters to critical and emergency patients from the entire Central India and the present occupancy was about 90%.
Dr Dhananjay Ookalkar, director of Ashwini Kidney and Dialysis Centre, said that the hospital was emplaned on various central government schemes and providing dialysis facilities to ex-servicemen, central government employees and many others. “These regular dialysis patients will have to find another centre at such a short notice which is next to impossible. We have told the NMC authorities that we will risk lives of many kidney patients as well as other patients visiting our complex which houses a blood bank and other hospitals,” he said.