Hospitals can’t refuse admission of COVID patients, emergency treatment for all patients should start without waiting for COVID report, says Bengal chief secretary

West Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha on Thursday said that hospitals cannot refuse Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) patients under the Clinical Establishment Act. He said this would apply to all the major private hospitals across the state, whose representatives he met during the day to discuss various issues under the backdrop of the COVID situation.

Sinha said that most big private hospitals had agreed to this, and have kept isolation wards. He also highlighted the fact that the private hospital authorities had agreed that immediate treatment – including emergency operations – will be done for patients without waiting for COVID-19 test report of the patients concerned. Many complaints have poured in alleging that hospitals weren’t treating patients till the arrival of the COVID-19 test reports. “There should be immediate treatment with all necessary precautions,” Sinha said.

The state government is also putting up a list of all designated COVID-19 beds available in state-run and private hospitals across the state. Private hospitals have been asked to display the list outside the hospitals.

Also, the government today discussed the rates of COVID-19 tests – which varied across hospitals. “We are not fixing the rate of tests yet, but we have asked hospitals to review that if some can do a test at Rs 2500, then why should it cost over Rs 4,000 in other hospitals?” he said.

The state government has also asked hospitals to bill COVID-19 patients “rationally” as everyone was bearing the brunt of lockdown leading to economic slowdown. Sinha said that the state is well prepared to handle COVID-19 in the coming days, and the beds allotted far exceeded the current requirement. The number of beds are also being increased.