To ensure that people get beds in the hospital, the Uttar Pradesh is all set to issue an order that no state-run hospital can turn away patients and if the beds are full, the patient should be sent to a private hospital while the cost of the treatment will be borne by the government.
The decision was taken at the Covid review meeting of Team 11 here on Sunday.
A government spokesman said this decision was taken to ensure that every patient gets treatment. “We have a sufficient number of beds. No government hospital can deny treatment on the basis of lack of bed. If beds are full, the patients should be sent to private hospitals where the treatment would be done at the rates prescribed under Ayushman Bharat Scheme. The money would be reimbursed by the government,” he said.
Meanwhile, Additional Chief Secretary, Information, Naveen Sehgal said that the rates of Covid treatment have also been fixed in private hospitals and no Covid patient will be charged more than the prescribed rate. The availability of Remdesivir in the treatment of patients will also be ensured in private hospitals.
He said to ensure the availability of oxygen in the state, instructions have been given to install oxygen plants in each of the hospitals with more than 100 beds. Oxygen will be made from the atmosphere in all such plants. Machines have started coming up for setting up plants in 39 such hospitals. Apart from this, the process of installing oxygen plants at 855 community health centres in the state at a cost of Rs 488 crore has also been started, he said.
Sehgal said that the chief minister has issued directions that medicines and oxygen should be made available to the patients in home isolation on time. Even if the RT-PCR tests are not done, the patients should be provided with healthcare facilities by conducting antigen tests, he added.
“The weekend lockdown will continue. It will begin at 8 pm on every Friday and last till 7 am Monday. In order to prevent infection, sanitisation and clean-up drives are bieng conducted by the municipal corporations in urban and rural areas,” Sehgal said.
The chief minister has said that in unfortunate situations, no fee should be charged in the funeral on the death of a patient and the last rites of all should be done according to their religious beliefs and customs.
Sehgal said that the state government is committed to protecting the interests of farmers and the process of procuring their crops at minimum support price is going on at a rapid pace following Covid-19 protocols. He said 6,000 purchasing centres have been set up by the state government to purchase wheat at the minimum support price.
He added that under a new arrangement, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) have also been allowed to open purchasing centres. Wheat is being procured through 150 purchasing centres by FPOs
So far, 7,67,476.42 metric tonnes of wheat has been procured under the wheat procurement campaigns, which is many times more than the wheat procurement made during the same period last year, Sehgal said.