With no takers, hotel quarantine centres want to close down
BENGALURU: Private hospitals that had associated with private hotels to set up Covid Care Centres (CCC) for asymptomatic patients are now considering shutting them down as the occupancy has been low. A total of 46 hospitals had tied up with various hotels in the city. But ever since the home quarantine option was introduced, there hardly were any takers for these private centres.
According to Bruhat BBMP data on bed availability, 2,721 beds have been allocated to private CCCs, but only 535 are occupied, which is just 22 per cent. The Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA) said it will shut down the facilities once the occupancy goes below 10 per cent.
The association said patients are not opting for hotel quarantining as the home isolation protocol changed for asymptomatic Covid patients. PHANA president Dr R Ravinda said, “Most hotels that were turned into private CCCs are empty. Patients would rather isolate at home than pay to stay at these facilities. The only patients coming in are those who have senior citizens at home.
If this continues, we will have to close them, as this is only leading to losses. We have deployed six nurses, two doctors and housekeeping staff at each CCC, whom we pay every day, as well as bear the cost for the disposal of biomedical waste.” Some hospitals such as People Tree Hospital, which is associated with Hotel Aura Inn, and Columbia Asia Hospital, which has tied up with Oyo Silver Key, have a 40-bed capacity, but have seen zero occupancy. At The Chancery Pavilion, which has a tie-up with Philomena’s Hospital, there is a capacity for 200 beds, but only 14 are occupied.