Why BMC decided that lab reports should be given only to the civic body

Hours before the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday directed the Maharashtra government to provide reports of Covid-19 tests to patients and their relatives directly,

Hours before the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday directed the Maharashtra government to provide reports of Covid-19 tests to patients and their relatives directly, Brihanmumbai Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal had clarified the logic behind asking private laboratories to share reports only with the civic body – many asymptomatic patients, after learning that they were positive, were getting admitted to private hospitals, taking away the beds meant for symptomatic patients.

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BMC in a circular issued on June 13 had said: “No positive test report shall be shared by the laboratory with the patient directly. Laboratory has to share the report only with BMC and BMC in turn shall share it with the patient.”

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had objected to it, stating family members of those who test positive should get the information immediately rather than waiting for BMC to inform the patients.

The SC bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan passed the order as part of the suo motu monitoring of facilities to Covid-19 patients.

In a clarification issued on Friday before the SC’s direction, Chahal said that beds in 35 private hospitals were occupied by asymptomatic patients, and under the pretext of not denying beds to walk-in patients, these hospitals are breaching trust of BMC and not allowing the civic body to allot beds there.

“It has come to my knowledge that most Covid beds and Covid ICU beds in major 35 private hospitals in Mumbai are occupied by asymptomatic patients. This is because after directly receiving positive test reports from laboratories, they rush to private hospitals out of anxiety and fear of complications and immediately get admitted before a positive symptomatic patient from the list can be allotted the Covid-19 bed or Covid-19 ICU bed in these hospitals, through our ward-level war rooms,” said the municipal commissioner.

Chahal said the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) guidelines state that asymptomatic positive patients shall not be allotted beds in Covid hospitals in dedicated Covid hospitals and dedicated Covid health centres.

However, as these asymptomatic positive patients get direct access to test reports from laboratories, they rush to these hospitals, pay money and occupy the beds.

BMC chief said the hospital too is happy as these patients are as good as quarantined, requiring no treatment.

“They earn money from their admissions, clearly violating ICMR guidelines of not allotting beds to such a category of positive patients,” he said.

According to civic corporation’s data, as of Wednesday, the bed occupancy rate for 17,000 Covid-19 beds is 69%, 96% for ICU beds, and 97% for ventilators.