Telangana Government eyeing more beds in private hospitals

Adarsh Nagar: Though the government is claiming that it has adequate beds to treat Covid-19 patients, the capacity of beds allocated for Coid-19 patients in government hospitals is going to be exhausted soon.

Going by increasing severity of the Covid-19 situation in the State, the department of health held a meeting with private hospital managements and requested them to allocate beds for isolation and treatment of patients, as new cases are inching closer to 2,000,

According to the government, there are 11,000 beds including lane1, lane2 oxygen and ventilators in government hospitals across the State. The health bulletin shows that there are 11,617 active cases in the state, of whom 6,634 are in a home and institutional Isolation. The beds' occupancy for Covid-19 patients is close to 7,000 which may be filled in a week if new cases rise at current pace.

The health department is planning to arrange additional 10,000 beds in private hospitals across the State. A total of 20,000 are already made available in both government and private hospitals across the State to accommodate infected patients. Apart from Hyderabad, private hospitals in districts are also requested to take in positive patients.

The department is, however, yet to fix the price for utilisation of beds in private hospitals. Last year, the government fixed the per-day fee for isolation or quarantine in private hospitals at Rs 4,000 for normal cases, while the charges for ICU were Rs 7,500 and Rs 9,000 for ICU with ventilator.