Number of pvt Covid hospitals yo-yos, state drops six facilities

The state government which, two days ago, had indicated that it had allowed an increase in the number of private hospitals treating Covid

19 patients from 204 as on September 14 to 225 on September 16, has mysteriously cut this number to 219.

According to the daily

Covid-19 bulletins, the number of government hospitals treating

Covid-19 patients as on September 14 was 42 which was reduced to

41 on September 16. The health department that issues the bulletins has not provided any information on the changes or the reasons for the changes.

The changes in the number of private hospitals have seen ‘adjustments’ being made in the number of beds offered by them for

Covid-19 patients. On

September, with 204 hospitals listed, the bulletin said there were 10,733 beds. On September 15, when the number of hospitals zoomed to 224, the bed strength had gone up to 11,288. That day, one more private hospital was added to the list taking the number to

225 and the beds to

11,340.

By September 17, the health department dropped six private hospitals, bringing their number down to 219 and the beds to 10,941. There was no explanation as to why the six hospitals were dropped.

It may be recalled that the government had set up a three-member task force last week to look into billing as well as treatment protocol violations by private hospitals.

The health department did not make it clear if the six hospitals dropped from the list had indulged in such violations.