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Chandigarh: Include pvt nursing homes in Covid fight, MP Kirron Kher suggests at admn meet
MC councillors also proposed various steps to facilitate pandemic management during the meeting.
Facing flak for not involving elected representatives in pandemic management, the UT administration on Tuesday held an online meeting with the city’s MP, mayor and councillors of the municipal corporation to discuss the Covid-19 situation.
While UT administrator VP Badnore sought suggestions to beat Covid-19 in writing, MP Kirron Kher pitched for involving private nursing homes in pandemic management.
“Nursing homes should be allowed to join government hospitals in Covid-19 treatment. These will benefit the city with the availability of more hospital beds/ventilators, and strengthen the medical facilities being provided here,” an official statement from Kher said.
The MP told HT that she has pressed for the opening of 14 nursing homes which were closed during the Congress rule in Chandigarh. “These will help share the burden on government hospitals,” Kher said.
In July this year, a panel of Badnore’s advisory council had rejected Kher’s proposal of allowing the conversion of residential plots into sites for nursing homes.
Reacting to the MP’s stand, Congress councillor Devinder Singh Babla said she should take the Covid situation more seriously.
“Kirron Kher is keener on starting more nursing homes in residential areas. This will create parking issues, so these should be opened in commercial areas. I request the MP to take the Covid situation seriously,” Babla said.
He added that more steps should be taken against malpractices in the name of Covid-19.
The councillors raised suggestions to set up a helpline at quarantine centres so that patients’ family members are able to coordinate among each other.
They suggested that traffic coming from outside be monitored strictly and proper screening be done at all the entry points of the city. They pushed for imposing heavy penalty on violators for not wearing masks in public.
They proposed that beggers should be banned in the city. They pressed for creating more awareness among the masses and ensuring discipline from mobile street vendors, besides proper monitoring of facilities at quarantine centres.
