Officials of Mysuru district administration and elected representatives on Wednesday held a meeting with representatives of oxygen refilling units and private hospitals in the city and took stock of the situation.
While the private hospitals were instructed to set aside 50 per cent of the beds for patients referred by the government, the oxygen refilling units were instructed to ramp up their production to meet the growing requirement of medical oxygen in the wake of the increasing number of COVID-19 patients requiring oxygen.
The private hospitals were not only assured that the government will reimburse the expenses incurred on the treatment of the patients admitted under the government quota, but also cautioned against collecting bills in excess of the amount stipulated by the government for patients admitted under different categories.
The representatives of oxygen refilling units, who were asked to increase their production, cited the hurdles they were facing in terms of sourcing liquid medical oxygen (LMO), transportation and other logistics before seeking government assistance.
Apart from Minister in charge of Mysuru district S.T .Somashekar, Mysuru Lok Sabha MP Pratap Simha, Narasimharaja Assembly constituency MLA Tanveer Sait and Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) Chairman H.V. Rajeev, Deputy Commissioner of Mysuru Rohini Sindhuri, City Police Commissioner Chandragupta and Superintendent of Mysuru district police C.B. Ryshyant were present on the occasion.
Earlier in the day, Mysuru District Congress Committee President Vijaykumar alleged a bed-blocking scam in private hospitals in Mysuru. He told reporters that that the Congress, which had started a health helpline last week, was not able to secure admission of even a single patient in the government quota beds in private hospitals since the last four days.
He also demanded that the government appointed IAS officer and former Deputy Commissioner of Mysuru Abhiram Sankar as the special officer for COVID-19 management in Mysuru district.
