Odisha: Private hospitals, nursing homes to mandatorily have at least 30 beds for COVID patients

Odisha on Friday reported the highest single-day spike of 3,682 COVID-19 cases, taking the state''s tally to 94,668.

"All private hospitals having 30 beds or more shall designate a minimum of 10 per cent of all beds to be reserved for COVID patients with an option to convert the entire hospital as a COVID hospital," a notification issued by the Health and Family Welfare department said.

Such reserved beds must include appropriate numbers of ICU beds with ventilators for COVID patients.

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The notification said that private hospitals and nursing homes will have to intimate the Collectors and District Magistrates of the district concerned and the state level authorised officer for data updating. They will have to appoint one Authorised Medical Officer who will coordinate with state authorities, it said.

The government has created many dedicated COVID Care Centres, Dedicated COVID Health Centres and Dedicated COVID Hospitals for COVID-19 patients.

"However, looking at the present scenario of positive case detection, the state will need more number of Dedicated COVID Health centres and Dedicated COVID Hospitals," it said.

The government also issued a fresh guideline where it said that all asymptomatic or mild cases shall be sent to institutional quarantine/home isolation or any paid COVID care centre run by the private hospital.

The private hospitals must have separate fever clinics and facility for isolation of suspected cases. When the suspected cases come out to be positive they should be shifted to the COVID beds provided the patient wants to take the services of the hospital on payment of fees.

"Only those patients who want to pay on their own or covered under their own insurance shall be treated in the hospital. No reimbursement or payment of any kind towards the treatment of such patient will be made by the government," the notification made it clear.

It said the hospital must provide all possible treatment as per the guidelines for the management of COVID-19 patients issued by the Ministry of Health.

The staff managing the patients shall take utmost care and preventive measures so that they themselves do not contract the disease. They will work for 14 days and go for quarantine for another 14 days after which they can again come back to patient duty.

All the tests must be done at the approved rate notified by the government and the hospital will charge reasonable fees from patients and refrain from collecting exorbitant fees, failing which strict action will be taken against the hospital, the notification said.

The institution will develop a mechanism for collection of bill amounts on a day to day basis so that a lump sum amount never remains pending. Dead body disposal shall be done as per the state and Central government guidelines.

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