Mumbai (SunstarTV Bureau): As Maharashtra remains the worst affected state in India, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), along with major private hospitals, will identify closely located four and five-star hotels to develop them into step-down facilities in its fresh attempts to ramp up health infrastructure.
The initiative has taken a day after Maharashtra reported nearly 60,000 new COVID-19 cases, as the all-India numbers crossed the 2 lakh mark for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.
In this guideline, the health department informed that the hotels linked to major private hospitals must have approximately 20 rooms. The notification also observes that many beds in private hospitals are occupied by patients who don’t need any emergency medical intervention. And therefore, such patients must be transferred to step-down facilities where minimum medical intervention is required.
Major hospitals are also expected to provide round-the-clock medical services to these step-down facilities. These facilities, in coordination with private hospitals, may charge up to Rs 4,000 per day per bed. For a twin-sharing room, the hospitals may charge up to Rs 6,000. Besides, hospitals may also charge extra for medical expenses, doctor visits and incidental charges.
The Bombay Hospital will use InterContinental, Marine Drive, as a step-down facility and the HN Reliance Foundation Hospital will operate Trident, BKC, as a step-down facility.
An additional 250 Covid beds, including 40 ICU beds, in the Jaslok Hospital, will be available on BMC’s dashboard online by Saturday morning to help the needy patients, the department said.
Thirty more ICU beds are being added to the Seven Hills Hospital on Thursday. Furthermore, at least 1,500 additional beds are expected to be added to NESCO Jumbo over the next week or so. Most of these beds will be oxygenated.
Notably, Maharashtra remains the worst-hit state, recording a total of over 3.5 million Covid cases and over 58,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
