Bengaluru: Hospitals told to set up step-down facilities for convalescent Covid patients

Bengaluru: The government on Thursday made it mandatory for all hospitals, especially those with higher critical care beds, to set up step-down facilities. This, the government believes, will enable doctors to make a decision based on the patient's recovery status on shifting them to step-down facilities.

"This will result in more beds being made available for critical care patients for timely intervention and treatment at hospitals. ln this regard, the Hotel Association through its chain of hotels is willing to offer an adequate number of rooms for setting up step-down facilities as per guidelines and BBMP is ready to facilitate this process," a circular signed by Additional Chief Secretary Jawaid Akthar read.

All hospitals treating Covid-19 patients including those registered with SAST are directed by the State government to set up step-down facilities by May 24 and empower doctors to shift patients to such facilities.

The order comes in the background of several prominent hospitals in Bengaluru shying away from joining hands with hotels to establish step-down hospitals.

The State government realised that due to this patients who are well on the path of recovery and who do not require 24x7 medical attention/hospitalization, continue occupying hospital beds thereby creating a shortage of beds for new admissions. Due to this, valuable time is lost in allocating beds to critical patients.

Due to a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases, the hospitals in order to increase the number of beds the government issued guidelines to step up step-down hospitals by private medical establishments in association with hotels.

ln Bengaluru around 17 hospitals have tied up with as many as 32 hotels providing over 1200 beds for treatment facilities to convalescent patients.