VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has administered the Health Department to allot 50% of beds in all private hospitals enlisted under the YSR Aarogyasri scheme to Covid patients. Even temporarily enlisted and non- enlisted hospitals have also been directed to increase and allocate 50 per cent of beds for Covid-19 patients. YS JAGAN has ordered all the health officials that Covid treatment should be provided at free of cost in all the hospitals empanelled for Covid treatment under Aarogyasri scheme, he also added that quality of treatment should be same in government, Aarogyasri empanelled and all other hospitals.CM has given the clear instructions to the officials that there shouldn’t be any scarcity of beds and they should have a clear idea of beds across the state.
CM has even explained the process of functioning of 104 call centre , stating the message would go to the district, depending on the location of the patient. He has ordered the collector and the district administration to respond as quick as possible and admit the patients to the respective hospitals and he also added that all the medicines provided to the Covid patients should be free of cost. He has also directed to set up covid centres near all the Covid hospitals so that hospital doctors also serve in those centre and added that all facilities should be available in care centres. There are currently 108 government hospitals, 349 corporate empanelled hospitals, 47 corporate temporary empanelled hospitals and 94 private category hospitals in the state for covid treatment. Thus, there are 48,439 beds in 598 hospitals, of which 41,517 are occupied and 6,922 beds are vacant. Of those in hospitals, 24,500 patients are being treated under Aarogyasri scheme.
He said food quality, sanitation, oxygen, medical care and availability of doctors are important in Covid hospitals and instructed the officials to recruit doctors on temporary basis, if necessary. He has even strictly directed the officials to make efforts to get more oxygen from the central government and asked to make sure there are other alternatives as well. Every teaching hospital should have 10 kl storage capacity and other hospitals should have 1 kl storage capacity of oxygen.The officials informed the Chief Minister that there are currently 44,236 beds in 88 Covid care centres across the state, and 13,356 patients are undergoing treatment now in those centres. The state government has recruited 16,981 staff so far this year, including medical professionals, staff nurses, technicians, data entry operators, MNOs, FNOs and sweepers.
Around 420 to 500 metric tonnes of oxygen is being used daily in Covid hospitals and it is expected to reach 1,000 tonnes by the May 15, while the state has a storage capacity of only 515 tonnes, they said.The officials said that In view of the growing demand for oxygen, the state government is requesting the Centre for tankers to transport 200 tonnes of oxygen per day from Sriperumbudur and another 200 tonnes from Bellary, as well as from Odisha. With regard to Covid vaccination, two doses of vaccine have so far been administered to 12 lakh people and single dose to 42 lakh people with a total of 66 lakh vaccines, the officials said.
By Journalist Natalia Moses
