Centre slashes rates of ICU beds in Delhi's private hospitals for treating COVID patients

A committee which was constituted by Home Minister Amit Shah under a senior NITI Aayog official on Friday fixed the rates to be charged by private hospitals in Delhi for isolation beds, ICUs without ventilator support and ICUs with ventilator support for COVID-19 patients.

The revised rates include PPE costs

As per the Home Ministry, against the current average charges of Rs 24,000-25,000, 34,000-43,000, and 44,000-54,000 for these three categories respectively, the Committee has recommended rates of Rs 8,000-10,000, 13,000-15,000, and 15,000-18,000 respectively for isolation beds, ICUs w/o ventilators and ICUs with ventilators depending on whether the private hospital is NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers) accredited or not.

These rates include PPE costs, while rates being charged by private hospitals, as mentioned earlier, are without PPE costs. This comes after the Centre on Thursday pitched for a unified strategy for Delhi and its satellite cities to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, while the city government ramped up COVID-19 diagnosis by commencing testing through the rapid antigen method.

While reviewing the Coronavirus situation in Delhi-NCR, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the satellite cities like Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad cannot be separated from the national capital in this battle. Besides Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava, senior officials of NCR districts and Ministries of Home and Health and ICMR attended the meeting.

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On the meeting by Shah with officials of Delhi-NCR, a home ministry statement said the minister said an expert committee decided the rates for COVID-19 beds and treatment in Delhi, and these could be applied in hospitals in the NCR cities after consultations.

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Shah also directed officials from UP and Haryana governments to submit information about COVID-19 beds, ventilators, oxygen cylinders, ICU and ambulances available with them and their plan to augment these resources by July 15 to the Union Home Ministry so that a common strategy can be devised in the NCR in the battle against the virus, the statement said.

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Delhi conducts 20,000 COVID-19 tests 

As many as 20,000 samples were tested in the national capital on Thursday, which is the highest number of tests conducted in the country in a day, ANI reported quoting Delhi government sources. Taking to Twitter, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said more testing will be done in the coming days.

Delhi has reported 49,979 COVID-19 cases, including 1,969 deaths, as per the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

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(With agency inputs)