Beds in wards of government hospitals across Telangana will sport multi-coloured bedsheets from Monday.
Calling it a ‘pink day’ because it will be essentially distribution of pink bedsheets in a big way, the government will replace the existing bedsheets in hospitals with pink, white, dark blue and sky blue bedsheets.
The blue bedsheets were for a smaller number of beds while the existing beds already had white bedsheets. Ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs will distribute as many 51,998 bedsheets on a single day, a government release said.
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The new bedsheets will include 19,974 each pink and white ones and 6,025 each dark and sky blue for 10,737 beds.
Tenders floated
The government had in September last year issued orders asking the Telangana State Medical Services Infrastructure Development Corporation to procure four coloured bedsheets — white, pink, dark blue and light blue — for hospitals under the control of Director of Medical Education, Director of Public Health and Family Welfare and Commissioner of Telangana Vaidya Vidhana Parishad.
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While white and pink bedsheets were meant for wards, the dark blue were reserved for intensive care units and sky blue for doctors rooms.
An estimated 92,228 bedsheets were worked out for 19,135 beds in wards, 1,579 beds in intensive care units and 2,343 beds in doctors’ rooms. The cost worked out to ₹2.53 crore at the rate of ₹ 275 per bed sheet.
Central directives
The government took the decision to introduce multi-coloured bedsheets following Union Health Ministry’s orders to hospitals to introduce different coloured bedsheets on all seven days of the week to ensure daily change of bedsheets to intensify cleanliness, hygiene and infection control in public health facilities.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao also felt that the recovery of patients from disease would be faster if hospitals maintained hygiene.
Whether bedsheets were replaced on a daily basis would be known by changing colours.
Nine companies participated in tenders floated for procurement of cloth for bedsheets and pillow covers. After evaluation of bids, pink and white bedsheets were introduced in three wards of Gandhi Hospital on an experimental basis.
First phase
To implement the scheme on full scale, the government in the first phase decided to supply bedsheets in four colours for 10,737 beds. The remaining 12,320 beds will be covered in the subsequent phases.
Health Minister C. Laxma Reddy and Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao will launch the programme in the Area Hospital of Vaidya Vidhana Parishad at Siddipet, represented by Mr. Rao.
The other members of the State cabinet and legislators will distribute the bedsheets in their local areas.