Ghaziabad administration cracks whip at private hospitals

The Ghaziabad administration on Monday warned private hospitals in the district against refusing admission to Covid patients and asked them to admit them and start their treatment at once to ensure that no life is lost.

In an official statement, District Magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey also asked hospitals not to worry about payment of bills by patients and said the district administration would clear the bill if a patient is unable to pay it.

"The treatment must be started immediately so that no patient dies. If the attendant of a patient is not able to pay the bill, the hospital management would provide the bill to the district administration and it will pay it," Pandey said.

"Every patient must be provided ICU bed and ventilator if needed," said Pandey while also warning private hospitals against keeping patients unnecessarily in ICUs to jack up their bills.

DM Pandey issued the instructions during a meeting to review the medical facilities in the district amid the rising Covid cases.

During the meeting, he also asked officials to take stock of the availability of oxygen and ICU beds, ventilators and ample stock of medicines, including those for treating Black Fungus infection being reported among cured Covid patients.

The district magistrate also deplored the private hospitals' practice of handing over the prescription slip to patients' attendants and ask them to buy the medicine from the chemists.

"This type of practice will not be tolerated," the DM said, adding the hospitals have to arrange for the medicines for the patients themselves and in the case of the management facing any difficulty in providing medicines to patients, it needed to inform the administration.

He also asked officials to ensure that all Covid wards in private hospitals are linked to the district anti-Covid Control Centres.

The district magistrate reviewed the Covid situation in the district two days after resuming his charge after recovering from Covid-19.

He along with his wife had tested positive for the infection on April 24.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)