No referral letter needed for admission to Covid hospitals: CM
No hospital, private or government, can refuse admission if it has bed vacancy, says Yogi
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday announced that from now on, any Covid positive patient needing admission in any Covid hospital in the state-private or government--will not require any kind of referral letter for it.
“A patient as per their convenience can get admitted to any government or private hospital in the state. No hospital--private or government-can refuse admission if it has bed vacancy. Implement this system effectively everywhere in the state. If a patient gets admitted to a private hospital but is not able to bear the expenses, the government will make payments according to set norms for the purpose,” said CM.
HT Correspondent letters@htlive.com :
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday announced that from now on, any Covid positive patient needing admission to any Covid hospital in the state--private or government--will not require any kind of referral letter for it.
“A patient as per their convenience can get admitted to any government or private hospital in the state. No hospital--private or government--can refuse admission if it has bed vacancy. Implement this system effectively everywhere in the state. If a patient gets admitted to a private hospital but is not able to bear the expenses, the government will make payments according to set norms for the purpose,” said the chief minister to Team-9—a new team of top bureaucrats and some ministers engaged in Covid management in the ongoing second wave of the pandemic. “The Integrated Covid Command and Control Centre (ICCCC) must have periodic updates on bed vacancies in all Covid hospitals (under its jurisdiction areas/districts),” he added.
The state government had faced a flak from public, some experts, opposition parties and also from some BJP members over referral letter from CMO of the district concerned for admission to a hospital.
Explaining the announcement, additional chief secretary, information, Navneet Sehgal said: “On getting a Covid positive report from a government or private lab, if a patient decides to go directly to a hospital of choice and the hospital has bed vacancy, the hospital will make a decision if the patient requires admission (according to the severity of the infection). However, on admitting a patient, the hospital will have to inform the ICCCC about it.”
“The other option is that a patient can himself/herself inform the ICCCC on getting a positive test report. The ICCCC would recommend if the patient requires admission or not and check where they would like to be admitted in case admission is required. Even after informing ICCCC, a patient may directly go to any hospital and once the hospital admits the patient, the hospital will have to inform ICCCC. Information of all Covid admissions--direct or indirect--has to be fed at the ICCCC or else how the government will track patients and maintain data. And in cases where a patient is tested positive by a government lab, then they will anyway get a call automatically from ICCCC to track the patient’s condition and give advice accordingly.”