Karnataka Health Minister Dr K. Sudhakar warned nursing homes with less than 30 beds in Bengaluru against admitting COVID-19 patients.
"The smaller hospitals have no facility to store liquid oxygen. So, they cannot ensure uninterrupted oxygen supply to the patients. Yet they are admitting COVID-19 patients as the government pays for the treatment. But I would like to warn them against putting the patient's life at risk. The government will not tolerate any loss of life due to shortage of oxygen," said Dr Sudhakar, who held a press meet along with Revenue Minister R. Ashok and Bengaluru south MP Tejasvi Surya in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
"All other hospitals with more than 30 beds are to set aside 50 per cent of their beds—general, HFNC, ICU and ICU with ventilators—for COVID-19 patients. The government will pay the private hospitals through SAST (Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust)," he added.
Surya expressed disappointment over private hospitals failing to provide 50 per cent of the beds to COVID-19 patients as stipulated by the state government, and warned that in the coming days, the state government would strictly enforce this.
"We have held three meetings with hospital managements, but they have not allocated 50 per cent of their beds. I urge the hospitals to allocate the beds based on their bed strength as registered under the KPME Act. I will be personally visiting every hospital and each floor of the hospitals to inspect these beds," said Surya.
"A team of officials from the city corporation, health, revenue and police departments will be deployed in every hospital to streamline and monitor bed allocation," said Ashok.
The minister stated that he, along with Tejasvi Surya and Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar had held meetings with oxygen manufacturers to overcome the shortage and to streamline and prioritise production of medical oxygen.
"Till two days back, we used to procure 70-80 metric tonnes of oxygen from JSW company, which has been increased to 120 MT. In addition, 5,000 cylinders are in stock. Union Minister Piyush Goyal has approved another 7,500 cylinders of oxygen and the orders will be placed with oxygen manufacturers," said Surya.
Sudhakar stated that Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa had written to the central government to hike the state's quota in oxygen allotment. "It is estimated that Karnataka will need 1,500 metric tonnes of oxygen till the end of next month," he said.
With the city reporting long queues at crematoriums, Ashok informed that the government has identified government land in the city's outskirts for cremation. "We have identified government (gomala) lands on the outskirts of Bengaluru for cremation as there is a long queue at the existing crematoriums in the city," he said.
Responding to a query on private ambulances charging Rs 23,000-35,000 to ferry dead bodies to crematoriums, Ashok warned of stern action against private hearse vans and ambulance services who charge exorbitantly, and urged people to register a complaint with the BBMP war room.
The minister exuded confidence that the weekend lockdown and night curfew (9 pm to 6 am) would help break the chain of infection. "We intend to take tougher measures in the coming days to contain the virus," he added.
