All hospitals registered under the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act have to display the name of their hospital, total number of beds and total beds allocated for COVID-19 patients referred by the BBMP.
The order issued by Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar on Wednesday stated that hospitals must make arrangements to do so by July 16. Non-compliance will attract punishment under the relevant sections of the Disaster Management Act 2005 and Indian Penal Code.
The order was issued after the government received several complaints that private hospitals were refusing to admit patients. In the notification, hospitals have also been asked to make a category-wise list of beds. The State government has been mandated to reserve 50% of beds in private hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients referred by the public health authorities.
The Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA) said that after admitting patients referred by the public health authorities and those who approached hospitals directly, there were very few beds left to treat non-COVID-19 patients.
Responding to this, Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar said that private hospitals should follow the Government Order.
