Mysore/Mysuru: At a time when COVID-19 continues to choke the city’s medical infrastructure, a team of Police and health officials visited various Private Hospitals late last night to physically audit the number of beds, availability and examined the process of bed allotment. 

The team comprised City Police Commissioner Dr. Chandragupta, Superintendent of Police (SP) C.B. Ryshyanth, MUDA Commissioner Dr. D.B. Natesh and Nodal Officer for Vaccination Dr. Ravi, who is also District Family Planning and Welfare Officer. The team examined records and asked the hospital authorities to produce records of admission, allotment and discharges. 

The team visited various Hospitals including the ones that can hold more than 100 patients and the intention of the visit was to see the process of bed allotment. The visit comes in the wake of the State Government asking Private Hospitals to reserve 50 percent of the beds for the COVID patients as was done during the first wave. 

The Government order has advised private establishments to vacate beds occupied by non-COVID patients who do not require hospitalisation and reserve the same for COVID-19 patients. These beds would then be allotted for Government referred patients. Hospitals have been asked to refer patients directly to the War Room instead of admissions so that all admissions are through a                                 centralised system. 

Confirming this to Star of Mysore this morning, Police Commissioner Dr. Chandragupta said that the late night inspection was to check if the Private Hospitals are complying with the Government order. “Hospitals have been asked to ramp up facilities and we have examined their records. They are bound to hand over 50 percent of the beds to the Government. We wanted to hear them out first-hand and we have requested their cooperation,” he said. 

Dr. Ravi said that the District War Room often gets complaints about non-availability of beds. “Hospitals have to mandatorily surrender 50 percent of beds and we have found that almost all Private Hospitals in Mysuru surrendering only 20 to 35 percent of their beds. We will wait for a few days as hospitals have agreed to allot half of their beds. If the Government order is not complied with, notices would be issued to such hospital management and FIRs would be registered against them,”  he said. 

There are over 140 Private Hospitals in Mysuru both big and small and 32 of them are exclusively treating COVID patients. There are over 3,100 beds in Mysuru and over 67 ICUs and 57 ventilators, he explained. 

“Many Private Hospitals we visited assured us that 50 percent quota will be handed over. After the filling of beds reserved under their own 50 percent quota, we have asked the hospitals to refer other patients coming for admission directly to the War Room, instead of admitting them. War Room is a centralised authority for bed management and allotment. Patients will be treated under Government quota and it will be free of cost,” Dr. Ravi said.