Ranchi: State health minister Banna Gupta on Thursday said the government will not hesitate in taking action against those private healthcare facilities which are unwilling cooperate with the state in its fight against Covid-19. Gupta’s remarks came after representatives of a few private hospitals in Ranchi did not turn up for a high-level meeting held at the Institute of Public Health in Namkum to review the Covid-19 situation in Jharkhand despite the health minister inviting them.
“I have directed the MD of National Health Mission (NHM) to issue a show-cause notice to those who didn’t turn up for today’s meeting. I have also directed senior officials to conduct a surprise inspection of such hospitals and if they are found flouting government norms, they will be booked under the Disaster Management Act, 2005,” Gupta said after the meeting.
The high-level meeting, which was presided over by Gupta, was attended by state health secretary K K Soan, NHM’s MD Ravishankar Shukla and a few representatives of private hospitals. They discussed issues like increasing the number of beds, ensuring availability of essential medicines and the current status of the vaccination drive.
Gupta said, “We are trying to establish a coordination among the state-run and private healthcare facilities to work together during such tough times. After detailed a discussion at the meeting, we have decided that all private hospitals in Ranchi will reserve 25% of their beds for Covid patients. They have also been asked to display the number of beds available and the government-regulated tariff at their facilities and that needs to be shared with the district administration every six hours.”
Asked about the less number of ventilator beds available in Ranchi, Gupta said, “Only 10% of the total Covid patients require ventilator, the rest can be treated with the help of oxygen support and medicines. Right now we are focussing on treating that 90% and the number of ventilator beds will be increased gradually.”
Meanwhile, the private hospitals’ representatives suggested ways to reduce the mortality rate and to monitor the asymptomatic patients properly. “Regular monitoring and providing medical kits to asymptomatic patients, who are in home isolation, will help us in reducing the patient load in hospitals. It will also help in giving a boost to such patients’ confidence,” Yogesh Gambhir, the president (Jharkhand chapter) of Association of Private Healthcare Providers India, said.
Shukla assured the private hospitals of full co-operation and requested them to keep beds ready for the critical Covid patients. “I have assured the private hospitals of all help and if needed, the state government will provide them with medical oxygen,” he said.
Following the meeting, as many as 10 private hospitals across Ranchi were asked to increase their number of beds for Covid patients in order to comply with the 25% reservation order and accordingly, Devkamal hospital, Seva Sadan, Medanta, Samford, Pulse, Rampyari and others have altogether added 172 beds.