Negligence of govt exposes in sanctioning permissions to private Coronavirus hospitals

Amaravati: Gross negligence of respective government departments was exposed in allowing private hospitals to provide COVID-19 treatment, with the fire accident incident in Vijayawada on Sunday. This traffic incident claimed at least ten, apart from more than 20 severely injured and suffered suffocation.

The authorities gave permissions to private hospitals without checking the fire safety norms. They only revealed it after the accident happened. Now, Minister for health and medical Alla Nani announced that the government will conduct a special drive on all private hospitals across the State. At least 15 private hospitals have been providing treatment to COVID patients in Vijayawada alone, at rented temporary buildings, according to the primary details available with the government officials.

Officials informed that about 20 hotels were turned into COVID-19 hospitals for emergency purposes. In the case of Swarna Palace Hotel, the Ramesh Hospitals applied for permission to run the COVID centre there in May itself. The health services at the Swarna Palace were commenced from July month itself. The government did not reveal the facts behind the electric short circuit and constituted a committee to submit a detailed report on it.

Fire safety director Jairaj Naik said that Swarna Palace hotel has violated fire safety rules. "The alarm bell didn't ring at the time of the accident and there is a delay in opening the back door. The investigation has been initiated and there will be action on hotel management after it"

On the other hand, a total of 134 private hospitals got permission for running the COVID centres across the State. The minister informed that though the private hospitals in the State were coming to run the COVID centres, they were not ensuring adequate infrastructure and violating rules and norms. In addition to that, they have been collecting the heavy fee from the patients, which was another crime, he accepted.

When this correspondent tried to contact KS Jawahar Reddy, Special Chief Secretary, Health and Medical department, he did not respond over the phone.