Now, free treatment of corona in Govt contracted pvt hospitals
   Date :20-Jun-2020
Staff Reporter
 
Raipur.
 
COVID-19 infected patients will now be treated free of cost in hospitals in agreement under Dr Khubchand Baghel Health Assistance Scheme and Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. The Health Department of State Government has approved the package of its treatment in the private hospitals under the accord. Till now, COVID-19 patients were being treated in government hospitals only. As per the norms set by the government, private hospitals with 50 or more beds with facilities have been allowed for treatment. In such hospitals only coronavirus infected people will be treated. Treatment facility will not be available for suspected patients of COVID-19 under the scheme.
 
In view of the ever increasing COVID-19 patients and future needs in State, as per directives of Health Minister T S Singhdeo, the private hospitals have been allowed to treat such patients under Dr Khubchand Baghel Health Assistance Scheme and Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana arrangement. Under both these schemes amount to be paid by State Government will be Rs 2,200 per day for treatment of COVID-19 with isolation facility in General Ward, Rs 3,750 per day in ICU with ventilator isolation facility and Rs 6,750 per day with ventilator and isolation facility in ICU with additional facilities. Instructions issued by the government from time to time will be mandatory for all such hospitals to follow. The technical committee of the Health Department will allow the testing facilities in private hospitals and treatment of COVID-19 only after the recommendation of the committee. Hospitals will have to take strict measures to prevent infection.
 
The guidelines issued from time to time for prevention of infection by the Health Department will have to be strictly followed by the private hospitals. Separate arrangements will have to be made for the movement of COVID-19 patients and other patients in the hospital. Private hospitals will have to make arrangements to have their staff quarantined in addition to the donning-doffing area. It is mandatory for contracted private hospitals to have a minimum of 10 per cent ICU of total bed capacity. It is also necessary to have ventilator and oxygen facilities. Full time MBBS doctors will be on duty in the Hospital. Along with this, qualified specialists will also be present for the treatment of the patients. 
 

Staff of Balco Medical Ce
 Staff of Balco Medical Centre (BMC), a premier Cancer hospital in Naya Raipur.
 
 
BMC gets nod for COVID testing Balco Medical Centre (BMC), a premier cancer hospital in Naya Raipur, has received approval of both State and National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) for testing of COVID samples. BMC has become the first private hospital in State to achieve this feat. Looking at the present COVID scenario, it is the need of the hour that private hospitals enter in this field to contribute and speed up the processing for piling testing cases. The laboratory department at BMC comprises of finest hisptopathologist, microbiologists, lab technicians and world-class instruments and equipment.
 
It is just third year of functioning of BMC and the hospital is expected to get full NABL accreditation in few months. The approval for COVID testing from NABL is the latest landmark in the series of COVID preparedness displayed by BMC. S Venkata Kumar, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Balco Medical Centre informed that, BMC treats one of the most vulnerable patient groups – the cancer patients, who are at higher risk of infection due to low immunity which happens due to the disease itself and the associated treatment.
 
However, the hospital team has not allowed the COVID threat to become a barrier for the treatment of cancer patients. Getting faster COVID test results will allow the healthcare professionals to initiate the proper treatment at the earliest and ensure maximum safety of the relatives and staff. Breathing a sigh of relief, Dr Manisha Sahu, HoD, Hospital Infection Control and Consultant Microbiologist at Balco Medical Centre said, “Until now only government operated hospitals like All India Institute of Medical Sciences and Pt Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Medical College, IRL were allowed to process COVID samples. Owing to a steep increase in the number of COVID affected people and delayed results due to overwhelming number of samples, we had to send the samples to Mumbai.
 
It took 3-4 days for the results to come. Through the approval of molecular testing by ICMR and NABL, COVID samples can now be processed in-house and results can now be obtained within a day.” Chief of Medical Services of Balco Medical Centre and Surgical Oncologist, Dr Jayesh Sharma, added, “We feel cancer patient’s treatment shouldn’t be comprised at any cost. There is high risk of mortality, if a cancer patient, who is COVID positive, undergoes any operation. The approval for in-house COVID testing will allow us to identify the positive patients within couple of hours and help us to decide proper treatment protocol for them. This will help to keep our patients and health care workers safe.”