Govt to reserve 60% ICU beds in pvt hospitals for Covid care

Justice Navin Chawla expressed the court’s displeasure at the delay by the Delhi government in presenting the statistics regarding the necessity of keeping these beds reserved amid concerns of non-Covid patients not getting critical care.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday said that it would be “inhumane” to have 80% ICU beds in almost three dozen private hospitals of the city reserved only for Covid-19 patients, especially at a time when the positivity rate and the cases in the city was going down. The court said that the order has to be removed, if beds are lying vacant.

Health workers check the body temperature of patients recovering at the Sardar Patel Covid Care Center hospital after getting, in New Delhi. (AP)

Justice Navin Chawla expressed the court’s displeasure at the delay by the Delhi government in presenting the statistics regarding the necessity of keeping these beds reserved amid concerns of non-Covid patients not getting critical care.

“Until there is serious doubt, continuation of this order is inhumane. How many beds are occupied, vacant, required for keeping the Covid-19 patients? Show me that they cared to find out vacancy and requirement of ICU beds in the last one month,” the court said.

“I’m going to examine the decision making process...Till the time it cannot be sustained to keep the ICU beds vacant,” the court said during the hearing. “My view is that there is no need for reservation. In case numbers increase, we will allow it again,” the judge added.

The court was hearing a plea by the Association of Healthcare Providers — filed through advocate Sanyam Khetarpal — challenging the decision of the Delhi government of September 12 for reserving 80% beds in 33 private hospitals.

On Thursday, the Delhi government informed court that an expert committee has recommended reducing reservation of 80% ICU beds to 60% thereby increasing the number of ICU beds for the non-Covid patients. The government counsel also assured the court that the Delhi government is going to pass an executive order for the reservation of beds on the recommendations of the committee by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA).

He said that a meeting would be held on December 26 in this regard, where the views of Dr VK Paul, Niti Aayog and Dr Randeep Guleria, director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will be taken into consideration while passing an order on reservation of ICU beds for Covid patients.

During the hearing, senior advocate Maninder Singh, also representing the petitioners, told the court that the division bench of the Delhi HC had vacated the stay because the cases had doubled and even the positivity rate had gone high. He added that now, however, the cases have gone down, along with the positivity rate.

After the hearing the government and the petitioners, the court asked ASG Jain to re-examine its decision and place it before the court on December 28 for consideration.

The government informed the court that in the meeting of the expert committee of the DDMA conducted on December 23 for formulation of recommendations regarding de-escalation of Covid-19 dedicated beds, it was found that there is a significant decline in number of cases admitted in the hospital .

The expert committee of the DDMA, in its recommendation, said that the total hospital Covid bed occupancy as on December 23 stood at 2,866 (of the total 18,779 Covid beds), and Covid ICU beds occupancy stands at 1319 (of the total 5,100 beds).

The minutes of the meeting said that the committee unanimously agreed that due to the declining trend of occupancy among all categories of Beds (Oxygenated, ICU, Ventilator), the de-escalation may be carried out in a graded manner preferably in Delhi government hospitals and private sector hospitals.

The committee decided not to recommend any change in the status of Covid beds for the Central Government Hospitals.

The committee also said that the Covid ICU beds reservation of 80% of the total ICU beds be reduced to 60%, making 40% ICU beds available for the non-Covid patients. It said that the private sector hospitals also being important stake holders for provision of medical and tertiary care services, the Covid beds reservation of 60% of total beds in all private hospitals should be de escalated to 45%. It said that this will make 55% beds in private sector hospitals available for non-Covid patients and increase the beds from existing 6760 to 8696 (approx), an increase of more than 1930 beds.