20% beds in private hospitals are allotted for poor, ruled BMC

 The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has ordered all private hospitals to order 20% of their beds for poor patients who have tested positive for the novel Coronavirus. The civic authority will bear the value of the treatment, as per the rates set by the government.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner (health) has reportedly said a nodal officer has been appointed to oversee the allotment of beds and their management. Kakani was quoted saying “Beds publicly hospitals are filling up fast and that we had received complaints that non-public hospitals were charging exorbitant rates.”

Over the last couple of months, there are several reports about private hospitals charging exorbitant fees for treating Covid-19 patients. Last week, a Santa Cruz resident lost his 74-year-old father to COVID-19-related complications. He was issued a bill of Rs 16 lakh for his father’s 15-day ICU stay during a city hospital.

Similarly, the brother of a 27-year-old man who died at a private hospital in South Mumbai was issued a bill of Rs 80,000 for eight hours of treatment that the patient received.

Last week, Maharashtra issues the notification capping treatment charges for uninsured patients seeking treatment for both COVID-19 and non-COVID ailments privately hospitals.

Wadia Hospital reserves beds for pregnant women with COVID-19

The BMC on Tuesday decided to release pending dues to Parel’s Nowrosjee Wadia hospital and directed the hospital to order 50 beds for pregnant COVID-19 positive women.

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Maharashtra Coronavirus count crosses 15,000 Mumbai nears 10,000 mark

On Tuesday Maharashtra crossed the 15,000 marks for COVID-19 cases with 984 infections, taking the tally to 15,525. Same as Monday, 841 of the fresh cases were recorded in the 24 hours before the announcement, while rest 143 were from the past couple of days, as per the Centre’s directive to match the data with the national figures on the website of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the state government said.

Mumbai is nearing the 10,000-cases mark with a total of 9,945 cases, including the 635 new infections recorded on Tuesday.

Maharashtra breached the 10,000 marks on April 30 in 53 days since the first case was reported on March 9. However, the State took only five days to cross the next 5,000-mark. Over the last few days, India’s worst-hit State witnessed a rapid rise in cases.