Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has suggested the need for building a private-public partnership in healthcare sector to deal with the COVID-19 crisis effectively and stressed the urgency to flatten the curve with the combined efforts of people, government and private initiatives.
Stating that the ultimate objective of any medical service was to offer affordable and quality medical care to the common man, the Governor said the society, including the healthcare sector, was facing a challenging situation. The private healthcare sector also needs to play a key role in fighting such a pandemic, she noted.
In a video conference held with several private/corporate hospitals in the city on Tuesday, she pointed out that people were in distress and were forced to run from pillar to post to get admitted in hospitals, losing valuable time in getting beds. She stated that the present situation was extraordinary which requires working in special conditions with a humane approach.
She highlighted the need to expedite testing, improve testing facilities and bringing down the costs involved in the treatment. She suggested the private hospitals to create awareness on home isolation and to offer telemedicine and video counselling to patients.
Asking the private hospitals to come up with plasma bank to offer plasma therapy for those in need, the Governor said her prime concern as the first citizen of the State was that no patient in Telangana is denied treatment in any given condition.
She appealed to the private hospitals with isolation wards to inform availability of beds, charge nominal costs for beds and come up with packages for COVID-19 patients, particularly from the middle-class.
Representatives from CARE, Apollo, Yashoda, Continental, Gleneageals, KIMS, Malla Reddy, Global, Sunshine, Basavatarakam memorial and other hospitals which participated in the video conference suggested that the availability of beds could be handled by the government by making a general pool information system to make it easier for patients and their families.
Several pulmonologists, who attended the virtual meet, highlighted the possibility of the emergence of an alarming situation wherein the cases may exponentially increase.
Accordingly, hospitals with thousands of beds should be made ready by the government to prevent last-minute confusion.
