BENGALURU: The Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA) has written to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Commissioner Manjunath Prasad, urging the administration to withdraw cancellation of trade licences of 19 hospitals, which were punished for not admitting patients and not allocating beds for Covid treatment.
PHANA, in its letter, explains that smaller hospitals with less than 50 beds suffer infrastructure and manpower constraints and are unable to take in Covid patients. It also urged the BBMP not to enforce reservation of 50 per cent of beds for Covid cases.
“While understanding the compulsions of the government to mobilise beds in private hospitals, the action of BBMP in putting up banners in front of hospitals and threatening closure is not only demoralising doctors and healthcare workers, but is also sending wrong sentiments to the community at large,” stated an excerpt of the letter, signed by Dr R Ravindra, president, PHANA.
Smaller private hospitals TNIE spoke to said they feel targeted by the government. Dr Ashok Rao, the owner of Vinayaka Hospital, which is one of the 19 hospitals, said, “After the onset of corona, most staff nurses, ward boys and ayahs quit out of fear. Because of lack of staff, we closed one floor entirely and have only one floor remaining with 6-7 beds, 3-4 staff nurses in the ward per day who can cater to 3-4 patients.
Maternity care is labour intensive, with one nurse looking after the baby, another looking after the mother and gynaecologists and obstetricians dealing with emergency cases, like deliveries,” he said. Another reason he mentioned, which is common to other small hospitals too, is the single entry and exit for both Covid and non-Covid patients which increases the risk of cross-contamination.
The third reason is the lack of sufficient infrastructure as such centres have only 25-30 beds. Dr Vishwanath Bhat, the owner of Radhakrishna Multispeciality Hospital — another facility on the list, said that his hospital caters to maternity and geriatric cases. “We don’t have doctors who work full time, but only consultants who work with us sometimes.
There is one entrance to the basement where dialysis is done and if the other entrance is used for both corona and non-corona patients, the hospital itself will turn into a super-spreader,” he said. He pointed out that government officials, who lack medical knowledge, take decisions without visiting hospitals and checking the feasibility on the ground.
Facing a financial crunch, small hospitals also do not have enough funds to set up separate Covid wards. Most of the 19 hospitals did not receive the notice of cancellation of trade licenses but found out through the announcement made by the BBMP in the media. They, however, received show-cause notices for not reserving 50 per cent beds.