Five private hospitals have recently started offering treatment for Covid-19 patients in Ghaziabad.
Le Crest Hospital in Vasundhara, Navin Hospital and Max Hospital in Vaishali, and two branches of Yashoda Hospital at Kaushambi and Nehru Nagar will offer treatment to all cases of Covid-19-- from mild to critical. Together, they account for 300 beds and every Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is equipped with ventilators.
Ghaziabad chief medical officer Dr. N K Gupta said the facilities will be paid for by the patients and prices range from ₹6,000 to ₹12,000 per day, including ICU rates, based on the rooms that the patient chooses. The hospital can charge extra based on other facilities that the patient chooses.
Except for Le Crest, which is newly-opened, other private hospitals still accept non-Covid patients, and will keep them isolated from the Covid wings that they have created.
Ghaziabad currently has four government hospitals providing free treatment. There are a total of 826 beds, with L-1 (for mild cases) category centers having 326 beds, L-2 (for moderate cases) category centers having 100 beds and L-3 (for critical cases) with 400 beds.
Ghaziabad is one of the 11 sensitive districts, according to the Uttar Pradesh government, that has seen a spike in Covid-19 cases ever since the Unlock 1.0 was announced from June 8.
{{/usCountry}}Ghaziabad is one of the 11 sensitive districts, according to the Uttar Pradesh government, that has seen a spike in Covid-19 cases ever since the Unlock 1.0 was announced from June 8.
{{/usCountry}}“Like in Delhi, there has been demand from residents for paid Covid-19 treatment facilities. We have authorised the five hospitals. In future, we plan to expand the facility to more hospitals,” said Gupta.
Dr. Sharad Agrawal, the CEO of Le Crest Hospital said the hospital has dedicated 100 of its 250 beds for Covid-19 treatment.
“We started operations on Tuesday and the first Covid patient was admitted on Wednesday. We are not admitting non-Covid patients at present. This is to avoid and infection passing on to other patients. We have general rooms, double rooms and single rooms with rates ranging from ₹7000 to ₹10,000 per day. The cost of consumables etc will be charged as per actuals,” Dr Agrawal added.
Twenty of the Covid beds will be in the ICU and the 80 others will be in different category rooms.
Navin Hospital offers its services for ₹6,200 to ₹10,000 per day depending on the category beds and rooms.
“At present we have started with 42 Covid-19 beds and plan to add 15 more. We have different category of treatment available with ICU, private rooms and multi bed facility. We are currently caring for 32 Covid-19 patients,” said Dr. Mahesh Chaudhary, director (operations), Navin Hospitals.
Dr. Sangeeta Garg, chief medical superintendent of Yashoda Hospital said the Nehru Nagar branch has 60 Covid-19 beds that cater to all category of cases and those who were yet to get their test results as well.
“We have about 36 patients. The rates range from ₹8,000 to ₹10,500 per day with consumables etc charged at actuals,” she said.
The Kaushambi branch has 30 beds dedicated to Covid-19. “We have ICU and high dependency unit available and the rates are about ₹8000 to ₹10,000 per day with other charges to be paid by patient. We are generally catering to L-2 and L-3 category patients here,” said a spokesperson of the Kaushambi branch.
Officials of Max Hospital confirmed the Covid-19 facility but did not respond to queries on beds and rates.
“We had spoken to private hospitals and five of them came forward so far for paid Covid-19 treatment. We will rope in more hospitals soon and will try to get more facilities for treating L-2 and L-3 category patients. We are strengthening capacities for L-1 category patients,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, Ghaziabad district magistrate.
In nearby Gautam Budh Nagar as well, four private hospitals are now treating Covid-19 patients based on packages whose prices are approved by the government.
At Fortis Hospital in sector 62, the ICU charges are around ₹14,300 and ₹11,100 for a single or private room and ₹9,600 for a twin sharing room. According to a hospital spokesperson, these prices include the room rent, ventilator cost, doctor consultation, nursing and diet charges along with a few tests.
“An entire building has been dedicated for Covid patients. We have a 40 bed capacity with eight ICU beds and are admitting L-1, L-2 and L-3 patients. Nearly 30 patients are currently admitted,” said a Fortis spokesperson.
Other hospitals like Yatharth have assigned a branch for Covid treatment.
“Our Noida extension branch is only for Covid-19 patients. There are 200 beds of which 45 are in the ICU. For general ward, the cost is around ₹8000, ₹9,000 for twin sharing and ₹10,000 for a single room. We started operations on June 12 and are at more than 25% occupancy. All category patients are being admitted,” said a Yatharth spokesperson.
Jaypee Hospital in Sector 128 and Kailash Hospital in Sector 27 did not respond to queries on beds and ventilators.
The officials of the district health department said that there are a total 383 private beds dedicated to treating Covid-19..