As coronavirus cases continue to rise in the national capital, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government on Friday directed the officials to convert five major hotels across the city to makeshift hospitals to treat coronavirus patients.
According to the reports, the five luxury hotels – ITC Ltd’s Hotel Sheraton at Saket, Hotel Crown Plaza at Okhla Phase-I, Hotel Surya at New Friends Colony, Hotel Siddharth at Rajendra Place and Hotel Jivitesh at Pusa Road will now be turned into makeshift hospitals where medical services will be provided by private hospitals attached to each of them, the Delhi government said in an order.
The state government order stated that Hotel Sheraton will be run by Max Smart Super Speciality Hospital at Saket, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital will operate Hotel Surya. The Batra Hospital and Research Centre will operate Hotel Crown Plaza, while Dr BL Kapur Memorial Hospital and Sir Ganga Ram City Hospital will run the hospitals at Hotel Siddharth and Hotel Jivitesh respectively.
#Delhi: To augment Covid-19 hospitals facility by 1,000 beds, following hotels to be requisitioned and given to attached hospitals for converting them in to extended #COVID19 hospital. #CoronavirusOutbreak pic.twitter.com/6S32rjDVTI
— TOI Delhi (@TOIDelhi) May 29, 2020
The Delhi government in its order said that the attached private hospital will be required to provide sufficient manpower, nurses and doctors as per norms. Further, the attached hospital is also required to provide oxygen supply, either in the form of oxygen concentrator or oxygen cylinder, in the extended COVID Hospital in case a patient requires oxygen support, the order read.
The order said the decision has been taken to augment already existing coronavirus hospital facilities by 1,000 beds.
The order also read that the attached hospital should provide all consumables like PPE kits, N-95 Mask, gloves, medicines and equipment like pulse-oximeter, thermometer, oxygen concentrator/cylinder, etc.
Delhi government caps prices
The Delhi government has also brought price regulations and capped the price to be charged by the hotel for providing regular services like rooms, housekeeping, disinfection and food for the patients at Rs 5,000 per day per person for five-star hotels and Rs 4,000 for four and three-star hotels.
Further, the prices charged by hospitals for providing medical services have also been regulated at Rs 5,000 per patient per day, which includes consumables, services of doctors, nurses, paramedical staff and nursing staff, among others.
The government has left the hospitals to take investigation charges as per the hospital rates, while capping oxygen support charges at a maximum of Rs 2,000 per bed per day.
The order read that the hospital shall collect all charges and make payments to the hotel. The hospitals can accommodate their doctors and staff at the hotel at their own expense, it said.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus cases in Delhi has reached 17,386, while 398 people have succumbed to the Chinese epidemic. In last 24 hours alone, 1,106 positive cases were reported from the national capital. There are around 9000 active cases in the city-state, while around 8000 patients have recovered from the infection.
