Private hospitals in Jaipur reserved for COVID-19 treatment; MoUs signed in Assam

Hospital buildings will be used as isolation and quarantine centres when needed in urgency

A medic checks the temperature of a tourist as part of precautionary screening in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak, at a hotel in Bikaner, Thursday, March 12, 2020.

Scaling up its efforts to tackle the COVID-19 outbreak , the Rajasthan government has reserved 84 private hospitals, with a total bed capacity of 9,377, in Jaipur district to meet a crisis situation. The hospital buildings will be used as isolation and quarantine centres as and when urgently required.

The orders in Rajasthan came after an important decision was taken last week in Assam, where the State government signed memorandums of understanding with 85 private hospitals for “transferring the load of other patients” to these healthcare facilities so as to enable three of the State’s six medical colleges to focus on the COVID-19 cases. No positive cases have been detected so far in Assam.

Jaipur Collector Joga Ram said the private hospitals would have to, when demanded, hand over their buildings within two hours to the Chief Medical & Health Officer or Sub-Divisional Officer. The order was issued under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and the Rajasthan Epidemic Diseases Act, 1957.

The hospitals include multi-speciality medical institutions in Jaipur city as well as smaller medical facilities and nursing homes in the nearby towns, such as Dudu, Bagru, Chaksu and Sanganer. Jaipur has witnessed a steep increase in the number of COVID-19 patients during the last two days, as 12 positive cases were detected in the Ramganj area, which has been placed under curfew.

The isolation centres are at present functioning in the Sawai Man Singh Government Hospital and the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences’ hospital in Jaipur. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said at a review meeting here that several private institutions and undertakings had also offered their buildings as infrastructure for treatment of patients infected with coronavirus.

In Assam, the initiative for signing the MoUs began on March 27 with the inking of agreements with as many as 34 private hospitals and nursing homes in Guwahati. “The agreement is for two months now, beginning March 28. All cases, except for cancer, maternity and emergency that come to the medical colleges are being transferred to the private hospitals according to their specialities,” Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

The State government, he added, had also floated tenders for setting up five prefabricated hospitals with 300 beds each with the intensive care unit and ventilation facilities to deal with the COVID-19 cases. To be used for five years, these “short-term” hospitals are expected to be established within two months from the ₹80 crore generated from one day’s salary donated by more than 4 lakh government employees.

Published - March 31, 2020 11:06 am IST