New Delhi: Non-Covid patients in Delhi will be relieved by a new government order reversing its own decision to turn 14 private hospitals into Covid treatment-only facilities.
The decision came late Wednesday after a meeting between representatives of 14 private hospitals that had been made into Covid treatment-only facilities and Delhi Health Minister Satyender Jain, where the former raised concerns over the struggles of non-Covid patients, as they were left with increasingly little scope for treatment.
The new order states that these 14 hospitals will be allowed to increase their bed capacity by 35 per cent and that “additional beds may also be used for treatment of non-Covid patients”.
In its order issued Monday, the Delhi government had directed 14 private hospitals, including Apollo and Sir Ganga Ram, to not admit patients other than those infected with Covid. The national capital recorded over 17,000 cases Wednesday and deaths crossed the 100-mark.
Nineteen other private hospitals in Delhi had been directed to reserve at least 80 per cent of their ICU beds for Covid treatment, while 82 private hospitals had been asked to keep 60 per cent ICU beds for Covid patients, according to Monday’s government order.
While Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had requested non-Covid patients to cooperate and delay planned and non-emergency services, the latter were feeling let down and left in the lurch.
In the updated order, the hospitals are now required to reserve at least 3,553 for Covid patients. The remaining 784 beds are to be used for non-Covid patients
ThePrint had earlier visited hospitals and spoken to representatives from the medical fraternity and non-Covid patients to gauge the on-ground situation.
Sameer Bhatnagar, a 33-year-old from Nuh (Haryana) who was in Delhi with his family for a scheduled knee surgery Tuesday, was turned back from Mata Chanan Devi Hospital in Janakpuri, after the government’s order.
Talking to ThePrint, one of Sameer’s relatives said: “At least the hospital should have informed the patient about the order. One doesn’t always follow the news, and to have come all the way from Nuh… While Covid treatment is a priority, it is not like other people’s pain is of no concern.”
Mata Chanan Devi Hospital is one of the 14 hospitals that had been converted into a Covid facility.
In-patients, who had surgeries slotted Tuesday, had a harrowing time after being told to vacate hospitals since they were not suffering from Covid, and the common refrain across the city was “do we not matter?”.
A relative of an accident victim, who had a surgery scheduled at Apollo Hospital, felt hassled after the hospital authorities asked them to take the patient to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
Hospitals and the medical fraternity had been divided over the sagacity of the decision.
ThePrint contacted some of the private hospitals that were reserved for Covid treatment under the government’s Monday order. While some felt a few beds in these hospitals could have been left for specialised, non-Covid treatment, others had silently turned their attention to handling the present Covid crisis.
Meanwhile, the Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI) was planning to file a petition against the government’s Monday order.
Many government hospitals too, such as AIIMS and Lady Hardinge Medical College, have restricted registrations at their clinics for non-Covid patients or deferred non-emergency surgeries.
This was not the first time in the past one year since the pandemic started that treatment of patients with other critical illnesses, have been compromised.
In March 2020, soon after the pandemic struck India and the Narendra Modi government imposed a stringent lockdown across the country, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had issued an advisory directing hospitals to “postpone” all non-essential elective surgeries. While the lockdown restrictions were gradually eased, treatment of non-Covid cases remained affected for long across Delhi-NCR hospitals.
It was only in February this year that the Delhi government, in view of the decreasing cases of Covid-19 at the time, had declared six of its hospitals completely “non-Covid” facilities. It had also been decided to reduce the number of beds reserved for Covid treatment in five government hospitals.
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Non-Covid, non-emergency
After the fresh Covid wave hit the capital, AIIMS was the first to stop walk-in registrations at its clinics. While the AIIMS decision came last Tuesday, other hospitals such as Lady Hardinge Medical College and Lok Nayak (LNJP) also soon started limiting the number of patients registering for treatment. All routine surgeries have been deferred by a week at Lady Hardinge Medical College.
Lok Nayak hospital’s registration timing was cut by half-an-hour. The number of patients being allowed into clinics has been restricted to 50 existing and 50 new, according to a senior administrator. But an order issued by LNJP medical director Dr Suresh Kumar Tuesday said all out patient departments (OPDs), emergency services and elective operation theatres (OTs) will remain closed at the hospital, except for Covid emergency, ART, TB, Hepatitis, IVF and thalassemia, from 13 May till until further orders.
Additionally, several banquet halls in Delhi, including the one opposite Lok Nayak Hospital, the Shehnai Wedding Banquets, have been converted into a Covid care centres, since the numbers have increased. Patients from LNJP are being sent to the banquet-turned-Covid care centre. “It is an extension of our Covid facilities,” an LNJP official told ThePrint.
The Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH), one of the largest Covid hospitals in the capital, is also struggling with the burden of patients. “We are in no position to consider even serious non-Covid patients, since the Covid patients coming in are critical and the numbers have gone up. It will take at least a week for us to settle in, to cope with the growing demand once again,” said Chhavi Gupta, media coordinator, RGSSH.
Doctors acknowledged difficulties being faced by non-Covid patients, but felt there was not much they could do given the growing demand for Covid beds.
Dr N.N. Mathur, medical superintendent, Lady Hardinge Medical College, said: “Non-Covid patients do suffer when there is surge, as you require dedicated infrastructure and manpower for Covid-19. But we have not stopped non-Covid activity, just scaled it down.”
A senior doctor at Max hospital, Saket, one of the 14 private hospitals reserved for Covid treatment, told ThePrint on condition of anonymity: “We are doing as we have been directed. It is not an easy choice to make, but what option do we even have at this point, given the surge?”
Not everyone, however, believed that this was the best way to handle the situation. “The government could have, perhaps, avoided this by leaving some of the super-specialist hospitals and reserved beds in other hospitals. Our hospitals, being known, have become an easy target,” the Covid nodal officer at one of the 14 private hospitals that have been converted into Covid-treatment-only hospitals told ThePrint, on condition of anonymity.
Asked about their status following the government order, an official at another prominent private hospital chain, with units in multiple cities, claimed that “50-60 planned surgeries per day and 390-400 surgeries for this week have been deferred”. Fifty per cent of these patients come for super-specialty treatments, the official added. At the Delhi branch of this hospital, one liver transplant, three kidney transplants and five cardiac surgeries were deferred Tuesday.
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AHPI to move court
Meanwhile, the Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI), which has its headquarters in New Delhi, was in the process of drafting a petition against the Delhi government order and had said it will move court by Thursday.
AHPI director Dr Girdhar Gyani told ThePrint: “It is rather vindictive of this government to declare 14 private hospitals as Covid-only to exert its power.” He added: “Hospitals like Ganga Ram have expertise for spine and liver, which no other hospital in India does. If they really wanted to increase beds, they could have converted so many other nursing homes in India into Covid-only hospitals, but not the ones that offer specialised treatment for non-Covid patients.”
CM Kejriwal, while addressing a digital press conference Tuesday, had asked non-Covid patients for their cooperation.
“There are several kinds of planned surgeries — like knee-replacement surgery — that can be delayed by two to three months. For non-Covid emergencies, we still have sufficient facilities across Delhi’s hospitals. There are a large number of planned surgeries that happen on a daily basis and only very few emergencies take place. I appeal to you all that please delay your planned surgeries,” he had said.
According to the Delhi government’s coronavirus mobile app — Delhi Corona — out of a total of 13,839 Covid beds, 4,786 beds were available as of Wednesday afternoon. Of this, 1,177 were Covid ICU beds with ventilators, and 185 of them were vacant. Of 2,155 Covid ICU beds without ventilators, 258 were vacant. For non-Covid patients, out of 1,671 ICU beds, 1,244 were occupied, as of Tuesday night.
Delhi recorded 81 Covid-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the highest since 3 December, when 82 deaths were recorded, taking the toll to 11,436. The positivity rate rose to 13.14 per cent, from 12.44 per cent a day ago. On Monday, Delhi had recorded 11,491 coronavirus cases and 72 deaths.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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When the 2nd wave started in other countries, the Govt ignored it. Had the preparations been made to cope with th situation then ( including increasing the capacity for inoculation), we would not be in this sorry state today throughout the country.