KOLKATA: A day after the state government decided to release beds requisitioned for
Covid patients at private hospitals, most of the healthcare facilities said they will stick to the existing system and desist from using the free beds for non-Covid patients. It was difficult to use these beds for other patients immediately since the flow of Covid patients is yet to relent and transferring these beds to a non-Covid unit was difficult, they said.
More than 400 beds have been released at hospitals like KPC Medical College, Charnock, ILS Hospital, Howrah, and Desun Hospital in Siliguri.
“We cannot utilize the 100 beds that the government has released for treating non-Covid patients immediately as it is in a totally separate block. We will keep those at least for a few more months in case the situation changes. The government has said it could requisition the beds again in case the need arises,” said KPC Medical College CEO Joydip Mitra.
The government had acquired 200 beds in this private medical college in mid-May. The medical college has another 500 beds that are currently catering to non-Covid patients.
While the government has retained all its
Covid beds in the Kolkata unit of Desun Hospital, it has released about half of the beds that it had acquired at the hospital’s Siliguri facility. Hospital sources that they will still keep those beds reserved for Covid treatment for now.
Beds have also been released at the Narayana Superspecialty Hospital, Howrah. The authorities said it will help though an immediate conversion of beds was not on the cards. “The flow of non-Covid patients into the hospital has increased considerably over the past three months. We have been managing these patients till now in our new wing. But since this unit is also operating at full occupancy, we were finding it very difficult to accommodate the non-Covid patients of our old building. The release of Covid beds will help us focus on treatment of those patients on immediate basis across all major specialties,” said R Venkatesh, zonal director (east) of Narayana Health.
The government had acquired 114 general beds and 16 ICU beds in the Narayana Hospital old building. Now, 74 general beds and six ICU beds have been released by the government.
The 100-plus bedded ILS Hospital in Howrah has been functioning as a full-fledged Covid facility since the government requisitioned it to function as Covid hospital. Now, with the government deciding to release 50% of the beds, the hospital plans to start taking in non-Covid patients as well.
“We are remapping the hospital so that we can start our non-Covid services as well, including our OPD for non-Covid patient that had been closed since the hospital got converted into a Covid facility. Now we are planning for three zones in the hospital – Covid patients, Covid-suspected patients and non-Covid patients,” said Debasish Dhar, group vice-president, ILS Hospitals.
A private hospital chief said while the decision to release beds was welcome, they will continue to be used for Covid patients. “We haven’t been informed about our requisitioned beds but since there hasn’t yet been a significant drop in the number of Covid patients, we won’t be effecting a change. Also, using these beds for non-Covid patients would call for a change in set-up, which is now difficult. We don’t think it’s necessary now and will take a call later,” he said.