Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Friday asked government officials to recover from private hospitals the amount they had collected in excess of the charges fixed by the government for COVID-19 treatment and return the same to the patients.
At a meeting of senior officials convened here to discuss the measures needed to control the surge of COVID-19 in Mysuru district, Mr. Yediyurappa said action had been taken against private hospitals in Bengaluru that were charging the patients in excess of the amount stipulated by the government. Even in Mysuru, officials should recover the excess amount collected by the private hospitals and return the same to the patients, he said.
Private hospitals in Mysuru had been accused of failing to set aside 50% of their beds for COVID-19 treatment. However, the hospitals had now fallen in line and were setting aside 400 beds for treatment of COVID-19 patients, said Deputy Commissioner Rohini Sindhuri while briefing the CM.
In view of the delay the district administration was facing for recruitment of nurses and D-group employees through tender process, Mr. Yediyurappa asked the officials to consider appointment through direct interviews so that the necessary para medical staff can be arranged to fight COVID-19 as early as possible.
Minister for Co-operation S.T. Somashekar, who is also the Minister in charge of Mysuru district, said necessary steps had been taken by the authorities to ramp up testing infrastructure in the district.
Also, he said Dasara celebrations had been scaled down substantially this year in view of COVID-19. While illumination of roads and buildings had been reduced to half of its normal scale, all necessary steps had been taken as per the recommendations of the COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee to minimise congregation of people during Dasara.
The meeting was also attended by Additional Chief Secretary Javed Akthar, Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare Services Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Mysuru City Police Commissioner Chandragupta, Superintendent of Mysuru district police C.B. Ryshyant, Mysuru City Corporation Commissioner Gurudutt Hegde, Additional Deputy Commissioner B.S. Manjunatha Swamy, besides MLAs S.A. Ramdas, L. Nagendra, B. Harshavardhan, MP Pratap Simha, MLC A.H. Vishwanath, Mayor Tasneem and MUDA Chairman H.V. Rajeev.
