Jagan for allocating 50% beds in empanelled hospitals to COVID patients

COVID treatment should be provided in such hospitals, he says

Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy

Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday instructed the officials to increase the availability of beds for treating COVID patients and to provide 50% of the beds to Aarogyasri patients in the YSR Aarogyasri-empanelled hospitals and non-empanelled hospitals notified by the District Collectors.

In a review meeting on COVID and vaccination, Mr. Jagan said COVID treatment should be provided free of cost in all the empanelled hospitals and there should be clarity on the beds available in Aarogyasri hospitals. He wanted COVID Care Centres to be set up near all COVID hospitals.

Officials informed the Chief Minister that there were currently 108 government hospitals, 349 corporate empanelled hospitals, 47 corporate temporary empanelled hospitals and 94 private category hospitals in the State rendering COVID treatment.

The total number of beds in 598 hospitals stood at 48,439, of which 41,517 were occupied and 6,922 beds were vacant. A total of 24,500 COVID patients weare being treated under Aarogyasri scheme.

Oxygen production

The Chief Minister ordered that the officials should explore all the options for augmenting the production of oxygen while trying to procure additional quantities from the Centre.

Officials said that up to 500 Metric Tonnes (MT) of oxygen was being used per day in COVID hospitals and it was expected to reach 1,000 MT by May 15. The State-level storage capacity was only 515 MT.

Keeping in view the growing demand for oxygen, the State government requested the Centre to transport 200 MT per day from Sriperumbudur and another 200 MT from Ballari and Odisha.

A total of 16,981 staff had been recruited this year, including medical professionals, staff nurses, technicians, data entry operators and MNOs and FNOs.

Vaccination

As far as vaccination was concerned, two doses had so far been given to 12 lakh people and a single dose to 42 lakh people.

Deputy CM and Minister for Health Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas, Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das, Covid command control chairman K.S. Jawahar Reddy and DGP Gautam Sawang were present.