Hotels in Bengal offer 2,000 more rooms to hospitals as patient rush grows

KOLKATA: The tie-up between hotel and hospitals for satellite beds is turning out to be a lifeline during the second wave of Covid. More than 70 per cent of the 1,000 rooms offered for this have been booked and the hospitality body in eastern India is preparing to offer over 2,000 rooms for the satellite centres.
Most of the hospitals have a waiting list of 100 patients.
That the Hotel & Restaurants Association of Eastern India (HRAEI) joined hands with the Association of Hospitals of Eastern India (AHEI) was first reported by TOI during the first wave of the pandemic.
Hotels have come forward to offer their rooms to serve as satellite centres for hospitals which are situated within a couple of kilometres.
Sudesh Poddar, HRAEI president, said: “We have offered around 1,000 rooms across various categories of hotels, which can be attached to hospitals as satellite facilities. These centres will be used to accommodate Covid patients with mild to moderate symptoms, where the attached hospital will be treating them under the care and guidance of their medical teams, as per the guidelines and advisories framed by the Union health ministry and the state health department.”
Rupak Barua, president of AHEI, pointed out that hospitals in Kolkata, Salt Lake, Rajarhat New Town and adjoining areas have tied up with hotels and almost 500 rooms have been added as satellite facilities of hospitals. Asymptotic patients admitted in such satellite centres will be treated under strict supervision of qualified medical teams of the associated hospital, with round-the-clock presence of doctors and nursing staff.
According to him, more than 50 per cent of the rooms in these satellite centres have been filled up with asymptotic patients. “More and more hospitals are taking up such facilities and we expect more beds will be added at satellite centres over the next few days,” Barua added.
Some of the hotels to have taken part in this initiative include Southern Plaza (with AMRI –Dhakuria), Sojourn Hotel and Monotel (both with AMRI), Visitel Hotel (with Apollo Gleneagles), Sree Balaji Guest House (with RN Tagore), Big Boss Palace and Orion West Willows (both with Belle Vue Clinic) and ASL Prime Hotel (with Woodlands).