Covid-19 patients to be allotted beds at private hospitals first, says BMC

To give a breather to doctors and staff at municipal hospitals and ensure all beds in private hospitals that have been handed over to the Brihanmumbai Municipal

To give a breather to doctors and staff at municipal hospitals and ensure all beds in private hospitals that have been handed over to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are occupied, the civic body has decided to prioritise allotting beds at private hospital to Covid-19 patients first. Only after beds at private hospitals — 80% of their capacity — are occupied will beds at municipal hospital beds be allotted.

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“Private hospitals told BMC their beds are vacant often and they suffer financial loss. We told them BMC will fill private hospital beds first, and once 100% of the 80% beds are occupied, we will move on to allotting municipal hospital beds to patients. My municipal doctors are over-burdened. They will be relieved of some stress. Both will be happy this way,” said municipal commissioner IS Chahal on Monday.

Chahal also recounted a recent conversation he’d had with the dean of BYL Nair Hospital. “The dean called me yesterday [Sunday] to tell me they had vacant Covid beds for the first time on Sunday. I told him, ‘By first week of July, you will have 25% beds vacant’. Whatever private hospital beds there are in BMC’s control, will be utilised first. Our doctors need rest. Our hospitals need to be relieved of stress,” he said.

All doctors at war rooms at the ward level, who are in charge of calling patients who have tested positive and coordinating with them for hospitalisation or quarantine, have been given an ascending order: First fill up local beds; then private hospital beds; then semi-government beds; and then municipal hospital beds.

Dr V Ravishankar, chief executive officer and consultant cardiac surgeon at Lilavati Hospital, said, “We are already accepting all BMC patients to full capacity, which is 80% of general Covid ward beds and 80% of Covid ICU beds. There is maximum utilisation as per notification and BMC auditors are in hospital every day to monitor this.”

Dr Gautam Bhansali, chief coordinator of private hospitals with BMC, said, “Since the last two weeks, we have been managing bed allocation to patients this way. First, private hospital beds are utilised. When they are full, municipal hospital beds are allotted, through the main BMC dashboard. None of the private hospitals turn down any walk-in patient. The only condition is to inform BMC to reduce one vacant bed against the hospital’s name on the dashboard because it has been utilised.”

Bhansali said this has ensured every patient is given a bed and there is no wait time for any patient. “No deaths should occur because a patient did not get a bed on time,” he said.