Devkamal Hospital will become the first private hospital in Ranchi to collaborate with a banquet hall for treating asymptomatic Covid-19 patients — a development that comes close on the heels of the district administration’s decision of using hotels and banquet halls for treating asymptomatic Covid-infected patients as hospitals here are running out of beds.
A 45-bed isolation ward at Amantran Banquet near ITI bus stand has been set up, and Covid patients will be admitted there from Thursday afternoon, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Devkamal Hospital, Dr. Anant Sinha said. “Around 32 beds are ready for use and the DC (Deputy Commissioner) has told me that he will send patients to new isolation unit tomorrow (Thursday),” said Sinha.
A water purifier and a television set have been installed in the banquet hall for the patients. “Only patients with mild symptoms will be kept in the ward as we do not have the high-end facilities to treat patients who have severe symptoms,” Sinha admitted.
Ranchi Deputy Commissioner Chhavi Ranjan had on Monday chaired a meeting with representatives of private hospitals in the city and asked them to collaborate with hotels and banquet halls for treating asymptomatic patients of Covid-19. He had said that hotels, with their ready infrastructure, will help keep the asymptomatic patients while attached hospitals can provide medical assistance.
President of the Association of Healthcare Providers, Yogesh Gambhir, said that no other hotel or banquet hall has agreed to provide their infrastructure for treating Covid patients in Ranchi. “Amantran Banquet Hall is the only non-medical infrastructure that has tied up with a private hospital in Ranchi so far,” he said.
Ranchi has witnessed an unprecedented rise in cases of Covid-19 infection in the past one week. The district reported it’s highest ever single-day-spike spike of 106 Covid cases on Tuesday. There were as many as 529 active cases of Covid-19 in Ranchi by the time this report was filed on Wednesday.
There are 100 Covid beds in Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) and all of them have been occupied. There is a shortage of beds in private hospitals too. Bhagwan Mahavir Medica Superspecialty Hospital in Ranchi, which is among the few private hospitals treating Covid patients, had all of its 21 Covid beds occupied on Wednesday.