Ministry Of Home Affairs Forms 10 Teams To Inspect Private COVID-19 Hospitals In Delhi

On Monday the Union Home Ministry formed 10 multi-disciplinary teams comprising of doctors and officials from the Health and Home Ministries.

These teams are formed in order to inspect 114 private hospitals treating COVID-19 patients. As per the order, the inspection will begin in two days and each team has been assigned 10 to 13 hospitals for inspection.

"The multi-disciplinary teams are constituted to visit all private hospitals in the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi to check the status of compliance of various directions issued by the ministry of health and family welfare for testing and treating COVID-19 patients," the orders issued by Gauri Shankar Jha, undersecretary to the government of India read.

The responsibility of the teams is to check whether the number of wards and ICU beds available in the hospitals is as per Delhi government orders so far. They will also check if the availability of the beds is being displayed in real-time on the LED displays and also on the Delhi government's Corona dashboard.

This decision was taken after a high-level meeting on Sunday which was chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah and included Delhi's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, the health ministers of the centre as well as the state.

Delhi's Lieutenant Governor and top officials from Niti Aayog, Indian Council of Medical Research and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) were also present at the meeting, reported Hindustan Times.

Dr Sanjay Rai, who is one of the members of the teams said, "If the current level of testing is continued, the number of new cases is likely to remain the same for about one or two weeks. At present, about 60 per cent of the COVID-19 beds in the city are occupied, but the occupancy in the ICUs — both with and without ventilators — is quite high. If the situation continues, there will be a crisis."

In order to meet the shortage of health workers in the national capital, 75 doctors and 250 paramedics of the central paramilitary forces will also be flown in from other centres to Delhi.

Initially, the Delhi government reserved 20 per cent of all beds in 117 big private hospitals in the city in May. During the September surge, the government ordered 33 of the biggest private hospitals in the city to reserve 80 per cent of their total ICU beds. Recently the Delhi government also ordered 14 hospitals to reserve 50 per cent of its total bed capacity for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

The teams will also look into whether the hospitals are following the discharge protocols and whether the patients are being referred to other hospitals without confirming the availability of beds in the referred hospital.

The teams will also check whether the RT- PCR testing capacity is being utilised and what is the turnaround time of receiving the report.

Also Read: COVID-19 Claiming Four Lives Every Hour In Delhi: Report