BHUBANESWAR: With Odisha witnessing a fall in number of new coronavirus cases, the State government is mulling to shut down all Dedicated Covid Hospitals (DCHs) set up in collaboration with the private entities.
A proposal to dehire the DCHs is under active consideration of the Chief Minister. Once approved, sources said barring a couple of DCHs in Bhubaneswar, all others Covid hospitals in the districts will stand dehired from January 1 onwards. The decision to keep the two hospitals with around 100 ICU beds reserved in the city has been taken in view of the new UK strain.
Of the 2,279 active cases in the State, only around 25 per cent (pc) are under treatment in various Covid hospitals as 75 pc are in home isolation. The government feels Covid units set up in the medical colleges and hospitals in the respective regions and alongside some of the district headquarters hospitals can cater to the patients.
“Cuttack does not need more isolation beds in private set up as a Covid unit has already been set up at the SCB Medical College and Hospital. Similar is the case with Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Sambalpur, Koraput, Balangir, Berhampur and Burla. More than 2,000 beds are now available in the government set up for treatment of Covid patients,” said the sources.
While the government has already dehired about 10 hospitals, agreement of a couple of hospitals which expired this month was not renewed. Most of the big hospitals having 500-plus beds had approached the government to take a final call so that they can start their normal hospital services.
In October, the Health and Family Welfare department had directed the districts to reduce the number of general beds by 50 pc per where the occupancy is less than half of the capacity in the last two weeks.
They were asked to renew agreement with the funding agencies for a period up to December 31 with the clauses to dehire or add the facilities gradually as per requirement.
“Most of the hospital beds are lying vacant with the decline in number of cases. But as per the agreement, the hospitals will raise bills unless they are dehired. The government should not keep the hospitals reserved and unnecessarily pay from the State exchequer. We can hire some beds in private set up once again if situation warrants,” said an official.
Odisha was one of the few states to set up DCHs in partnership with private hospitals in early April. Around 50 such hospitals with a bed strength of around 8,000 were developed across the State in a period of one month.