E-Paper
No hospital in Uttar Pradesh to turn away Covid-19 patient: State government
The decision comes as several hospitals across UP are facing an acute shortage of beds, which has forced Covid-19 patients and their families to run from one hospital to another. I
No hospital in Uttar Pradesh will turn away patients of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and if state-run hospitals are short of beds, they can be sent to private hospitals and the government will bear the expense, chief minister Yogi Adityanath directed officials on Sunday, Uttar Pradesh additional chief secretary (information) Navneet Sehgal told news agency ANI.
The decision comes as several hospitals across UP are facing an acute shortage of beds, which has forced Covid-19 patients and their families to run from one hospital to another. In Ghaziabad, the occupancy of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds is almost full while that of Covid-19 beds is around 80 per cent. Similar scenes are being witnessed in Noida where hospitals are trying to arrange as many beds as they can. In the capital city of Lucknow, hospitals are asking for a referral letter from the chief medical officer’s (CMO) office, a family member of a Covid-19 patient told Reuters on April 21.
Last week, Union minister VK Singh tweeted and sought help for a person who was infected with Covid-19 but was unable to find a hospital bed in Ghaziabad.
Uttar Pradesh, the second worst-hit state from the pandemic, has so far added over 1.05 million cases and reported 10,959 deaths. On Saturday, the state added 38,055 Covid-19 disease cases, the highest ever single-day spike, and 223 people died. Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Meerut, etc are some of the regions which are contributing the most towards UP’s daily cases and deaths.
Chief minister Adityanath also announced on Sunday all Covid-19 hospitals in Uttar Pradesh will be required to publicly announce the number of vacant beds twice a day and all patients admitted in government hospitals will be given Remdesivir doses free of cost, according to an official statement. No fees will be charged for cremating patients and rates have been fixed for Covid-19 testing and treatment, the statement showed. All those belonging to the unfortunate sections will be given masks free of cost, it added.
