Legislative council elections in Bihar, Andhra on July 6
NEWDELHI:The Union health ministry asked the states on Monday to negotiate with private hospitals and fix a price for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) treatment in order to address complaints from the public of overcharging by some establishments.
In a statement, the ministry also asked states to engage with private healthcare providers to facilitate enhanced bed availability and critical-care health facilities.
“In order to ensure that patients receive prompt, good quality and care at reasonable rates, it has been suggested to States to have consultations with the local private healthcare providers and arrive at reasonable rates, while factoring in cost elements for personal safety equipments for healthcare providers,” read a statement from the ministry released late on Monday.
The ministry pointed out that some states had already reached an agreement with the private sector on “reasonable rates” and said that once fixed, the rates must be widely publicized. Telangana announced the upperlimit for testing and treatment on Monday. “States have also been asked to proactively engage with the private sector health providers and consider pooling in public and private healthcare facilities, as this will help in providing prompt, good quality and reasonable health care to Covid-19 patients,” the statement added.
With infections soaring in India over the past week and an average of roughly 10,000 cases being reported daily, there has been an increased demand for critical-care beds and complaints that patients in several badly hit cities were denied timely treatment.
India currently has 958 dedicated Covid-19 hospitals, with 167,883 isolation beds, 21,614 intensive care unit beds and 73,469 oxygen supported beds. There are 2,313 dedicated Covid health centres with 133,037 isolation beds; 10,748 ICU beds and 46,635 oxygen supported beds have also been operationalised.
Across 7,525 Covid care centres, there are 7,10,642 beds are available. There are currently 21,494 ventilators available.
Private sector operators urged the government to keep in mind the costs of providing health care.
NEW DELHI: The pending legislative council elections in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh will be held on July 6 with the results on the same day, the Election Commission announced on Monday.
The elections were deferred due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Considering the prevailing unforeseen situation of public health emergency due to Covid-19 and the guidelines & orders passed under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 by the competent authority, the Election Commission... directed that the process of election to the above mentioned seats shall be initiated at a later date after reviewing the prevailing situation,” the EC said in its order on Monday.
While one seat in Andhra Pradesh was vacated by an MLC, nine seats will go to polls in Bihar.
“The Commission, after receiving inputs from CEO, Andhra Pradesh, has decided to hold a bye-election to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council by the members of the Legislative Assembly,” the Commission said in a press release. A similar direction has been issued for Bihar.
The Commission has also directed the chief secretaries of both states to depute a senior official to “ensure that the extant instructions regarding Covid-19 containment measures are complied with while making arrangements for conducting the elections”.
“The Election Commission has obviously weighed the pros and cons of the situation,” said former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi. “They are aware of the stipulations of the government of India.”
Moreover, added Quraishi, MLC electorates are relatively small and thus, ensuring social distancing would not be a hassle. “South Korea has conducted national elections with 30 million voters, the EC must have studied the case and taken a decision.”