BENGALURU: In all, 58 small-sized private hospitals shut temporarily or permanently in Bengaluru after Covid-19 struck the city, revealed members of the Private Hospitals and Nursing Association (PHANA), on Wednesday.PHANA president Dr R Ravindra said that many hospitals run by single doctors had to shut because of the pandemic-triggered financial crisis. “Private hospitals have to follow 19 norms specified by the government and it is difficult to adhere to all of them. We have requested the government to reduce the number of norms,” he added.
Also, around 50% of nurses and paramedical staff, and 30% of doctors have quit their jobs, worried about the high risk involved in treating Covid patients. “Human resource is a big problem for both big and small private hospitals. If we get the required staff, we can function. But doctors are not willing to work, though we offer them insurance and incentives. Even the offer to double the salaries has not convinced them. We have asked the government to provide us with manpower, and they can send us postgraduate and final year students, whom we can train,” said Dr Prasanna HM, President-Elect, PHANA.
Right now, 384 PHANA member hospitals, which are 50-100 bed facilities, have 4,500 beds, and the order to reserve 50 per cent of beds for Covid patients is posing a big challenge. “We have brought it to the government’s notice,” Dr Prasanna said.On patients being denied treatment at private hospitals, the members said, “Initially, we were not geared up to take Covid patients, but now we are. Suspected patients turn up at our hospitals and there are no isolation facilities. We are now sorting this out,” Dr Ravindra said.
While Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar claimed that private hospitals have 15,500 beds, PHANA said they had only 10,500. Some of the hospitals are also ophthalmology, kidney care and cancer centres, which cannot admit Covid patients. Right now, only 8,500 beds can be considered, they said.
Dr Sudhakar said, “The government has offered good price slabs to private hospitals. We have taken only 50% of beds, unlike in Mumbai, where private hospitals had to dedicate 80% of beds for Covid patients.”