Jharkhand: Private hospitals told to keep 50% beds for Covid patients

Ranchi: The state health department on Monday issued a directive reserving 50% beds in all private hospitals for Covid-19 patients. Last week, the government had mandated that 25% beds in private hospitals be reserved for coronavirus patients. The figure has now been doubled in the wake of growing number of Covid-19 cases. On the other hand, Jharkhand also received 1,500 doses of Remdesivir injections from Delhi, officials said.

The directive on reserving beds came after a meeting of senior health officials chaired by state health minister Banna Gupta at the Nepal House on Monday.

Talking to TOI, Banna said: “I held consultations with senior health officials, and we decided that 50% of total beds across all private hospitals need to be reserved for Covid-19 patients.”

A letter was issued by state health secretary K K Soan, who directed all deputy commissioners to ensure that private hospitals adhere to the 50% stipulation.

“In order to ensure timely availability of beds to infected patients, 50% of total beds at private hospitals need to be reserved for Covid-19 patients,” Soan’s letter read.

Officials said that they were exploring options to increase beds by setting up makeshift hospitals in districts with higher caseload. They were also planning to convert residential complexes of Skill India as Covid care centres (CCC).

“I have asked the health secretary to review the condition of residential complexes run by Skill India across the state and decide whether they can be converted to Covid treatment centres to increase bed capacity,” Banna said.

Talking about the fresh stocks of Remdesivir received by Jharkhand, state drug controller Dr Ritu Sahay said the life-saving medicine will be provided to CCCs under the strict supervision of drug inspectors to prevent its black marketing as it is essential for the treatment of Covid patients.