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Reserve 10-25% beds for Covid-19 patients: Health dept to pvt hospitals
Concerned over sudden rise in Covid-19 cases, state health department has asked all private hospitals across Bihar to reserve 10-25% beds for treatment of infected patients, an official said on Thursday
Concerned over sudden rise in Covid-19 cases, state health department has asked all private hospitals across Bihar to reserve 10-25% beds for treatment of infected patients, an official said on Thursday.
State health secretary KK Soan wrote to all deputy commissioners (DC) of the state on Wednesday, asking them to ensure reservation of 10-25% normal and ICU beds of total capacity at private hospitals for Covid-19 patients.
The secretary in the letter asked the DCs to hold meetings with private hospitals in their respective districts within 48 hours and inform the department about the progress.
Jharkhand saw a sudden spike in cases of Covid-19. The number of cases doubled in a week. On April 1, state recorded 690 cases in a day, while on April 7 the case went up to 1312.
An analysis of the daily bulletin of state health department shows that the state registered 6,707 cases in a week from April 1 to April 7 and as many as 38 people died of Covid-19 during the period.
Of the total cases, about 50% cases have been reported from Ranchi. The district has registered 3,325 cases in first week of April and 17 people lost their lives.
Health officials, however, claimed that the state’s recovery rate is higher than the national average, while fatality rate is much lower than the country’s rate. State’s recovery rate is 93.11%, while country recovery rate is 91.70%. Jharkhand’s fatality rate stands at 0.88%, while country rate is at 1.30%.
Till now, 22 private hospitals have dedicated 806 beds for the Covid patients.
As per the bed availability report of the Ranchi administration, the district has arranged a total of 2305 beds, of which 804 beds are occupied. However, major challenge for the administration is to arrange oxygen supported and ICU beds. There are 361 ICU beds available with the administration, while 200 are already occupied. Similarly, out of 566 available oxygen beds, 391 are already occupied.
Jharkhand chapter president of Association of Healthcare Provider India (AHPI) Jogesh Gambhi said, “The private hospitals having oxygen supported and ICU facility have already reserved more than 10 per cent beds, while some of them reserved more than 25% beds as per government order.”
He said, “The hospitals having less than 25 beds are not in a position to treat Covid patients as proper segregation is required.” Jharkhand has over 500 small and big private hospitals, of which, 70 are at Ranchi, he said.
