Making the district’s private health sector its co-worker in dealing with the emergent nature and potential magnitude of the coronavirus pandemic, Mohali Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan on Wednesday made it clear that no private hospital would refuse treatment to the COVID-19 positive or suspected patient.
At the same time, the Deputy Commissioner has asked the private hospitals, with 10 or more beds, to set aside isolation beds, wards or other infrastructure at the disposal of Mohali Civil Surgeon.
He also made it clear that the private hospitals will not charge from the patients, referred by the Civil Surgeon, and the patients have to pay only for the consumables like medicines, syringes etc used in the treatment at the rates prescribed by the Government.
For the purpose, the Deputy Commissioner has constituted an advisory committee headed by the Mohali Civil Surgeon to assess and identify the required private health infrastructure to be used or set aside in case any of contingency.
The set of directions came on the day the district reported three more corona positive cases, taking the total number of patients to 10.
As per the orders issued by the DC, all private hospitals (having 10 beds or more) shall provide an inventory of their beds (including ICU), ventilators or respirators, laryngoscopes, PPE and any other essential item as specified by the Civil Surgeon, Mohali (CSM).
The Committee will decide the number of beds, ventilators or ambulances etc on the basis of overall capacity of the hospital and strictly on the principle of equity.
The orders added that the hospitals have been directed that to ensure that staff including doctors, nurses, and paramedics etc are all be available on duty and no one shall refuse treatment to COVID19 positive or suspected cases.
Pertinently, there have been many reports of non-cooperation, under-reporting of capacity, exorbitant charging, refusal to set apart and create isolation facilities and even turning away of patients by private hospitals in the district.
Moreover, it has been reported that in some cases, the hospital management has stated that their staff has refused to treat or attend to COVID positive or even suspected cases.
“This is an unprecedented situation and at this time, parochial profiteering objectives cannot be justified. Concerted efforts will be required in order to be fully prepared,” said the Deputy Commissioner.
Admitting that the public health infrastructure in the district is grossly inadequate given the potential magnitude of the pandemic, Dayalan said that even the district hospital, which is under reconstruction as a Medical College, has only 100 beds (out of which 20 beds have set aside for isolation) and zero ventilators.
“The private sector in the district has a strong health infrastructure which is crucial to supplement ICU beds or ventilators needed in the district.
So it is imperative to take urgent and essential steps to synchronize the strategies or infrastructure for prevention and treatment of the pandemic,” he said.