Mumbai civic body asks private hospitals to refer critical patients to its Covid-19 facilities

To reduce the city’s high fatality rate, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has urged private hospitals to refer patients in critical condition to civic-run

To reduce the city’s high fatality rate, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has urged private hospitals to refer patients in critical condition to civic-run Covid health centres and major hospitals, in case of deteriorating health or no sign of recovery.

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The city’s fatality rate is 5.3%, higher than the state’s fatality rate of 3.2%. BMC aims to bring it below 3%. After the civic body noticed a surge in Covid deaths in private hospitals, they decided to monitor private hospitals with higher fatalities. The civic body has been conducting weekly meetings with top 10 hospitals registering higher death rate. As per BMC’s analysis, the share of fatalities in private hospitals has increased from 15-20% in June to over 40% in August.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner of health, said, “Our suggestion to them is to refer critical patients to our major hospitals and Covid centres. We have also told them to not hesitate to take opinions of outside experts like deans of our hospitals or members from the state task force. All of this is being done under our ‘Mission Save Lives’, as part of which we want to bring down the fatalities.”

Deepak Baid, president of Association of Medical Consultants, said, “The Covid fatality rate has increased due to two major reason – late admission and lack of regular check-ups of patients advised home quarantine. Patients still do not know where to get tested if they show symptoms and the bed allotment system of BMC is poor. There needs to be regular follow-up with patients who are home quarantined and their oxygen levels need to be checked twice a day. Apart from private hospitals, BMC needs to improve a lot in various areas to bring down the fatality rate.”

On Friday, Mumbai reported 1,217 new Covid-19 cases. There were 30 deaths due to Covid-19 taking the toll to 7,565. Of the 142, 108 cases recorded in the city so far, 19,407 are active. The total number of discharged patients is 1.48 lakh. The recovery rate of the city stands at 81% and doubling rate has increased to 86 days. As per BMC’s data, of the 30 deaths, seven were aged between 40 and 60 years. 23 were above 60 years. As of Thursday, 7.43 lakh Covid tests have been conducted in the city.