There was mixed response to the State government’s advisory to private hospitals on the measures to be taken for treatment of COVID-19 suspect cases and setting up of isolation wards, special counters and training of doctors and para-medical staff to prevent its transmission.
Majority of the private hospital doctors said they are ready to provide treatment to COVID-19 suspect cases if the patients visit their hospitals and after suspecting the virus they would immediately refer the cases to Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad or to the district headquarters hospital for treatment at an isolation ward. “We cannot open special isolation wards in our own hospitals and provide treatment to the patients suffering COVID-19,” said a senior IMA leader of Karimnagar district.
Quoting anonymity, the senior physician of the district said that private nursing homes and hospitals do not have proper accommodation to create isolation wards. “Already, the district headquarters hospitals have set up isolation wards and the private medical colleges have also come forward to set up isolation wards. Then where is the need for opening isolation wards in private hospitals?”, he asked.
“If we set up an isolation ward and open special counter for the treatment of suspects, the regular patients would be scared and would not come again to our hospitals,” he feared. Even the situation was the same in the government headquarters hospitals also. Whenever a suspected case of coronavirus was reported in the government hospital, the government doctors were immediately rushing the suspect to Hyderabad for treatment and not taking risk by providing medication at the district hospitals, he added.
“We are not denying treatment to the COVID suspect cases or others. But, the government deciding to dictate the prices that private hospitals should charge and instructing the method of treating a patient is not correct,” said a doctor.
IMA state president Edavelli Vijayender Reddy said that “we are ready to support the State government during the critical situation and participate actively in the launching of awareness programmes”. However, the private hospitals were not consulted by the government for opening isolation wards to treat the suspects, he maintained.
