BENGALURU: BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta visited three private hospitals -- Vikram, Shifaa and HBS Hospital -- on Saturday and served them notice for failing to reserve 50 per cent of their beds for government-referred Covid patients.
Interestingly, the hospital managements got a whiff of their visit and even before the chief commissioner and his team could reach, two of them added six more of their ICU beds for government-referred patients. However, the BBMP staff was not convinced and said that government orders should be adhered to and beds should be reserved immediately.
Looking at the sluggish response from private hospitals during the pandemic and the limited help being given to patients, Gupta ordered the formation of three teams, which will be tasked with visiting city hospitals and can even shut down OPDs if enough beds are not reserved.
“We require more ICU beds and all hospitals will have to make arrangements for it, there is no other option left. We can take over entire buildings under the Disaster Management Act, but we do not want to come down so heavily on them yet,” Gupta said.