Private hospitals are keen on offering the services of their specialist doctors for treating serious patients admitted at the Dedicated Covid Hospital of Dhanbad to help the district authorities better manage the pandemic and ensure that those who are being treated here do not have to be referred to hospitals elsewhere, say, in Ranchi or Jamshedpur.

Rajiv Sharma, secretary of Jivan Rekha Trust which operates the Asian Dwarkadas Jalan Super Speciality Hospital of Dhanbad, said they would be meeting with Dhanbad deputy commissioner Uma Shankar Singh soon with such a proposal. “We want to extend our help to the district administration regarding treatment of Covid patients admitted at the Dedicated Covid Hospital as we have the services of specialist neurologists and cardiologists who are mostly required while dealing with severe Covid cases,” he told The Telegraph Online.

Sharma also referred to deputy commissioner Singh’s statement at a press conference on Sunday when he indicated that the district administration may have to take over private hospitals, as per provisions of the Disaster Management Act, to meet future exigencies in view of the rising number of cases.

“We perform more than a dozen neurological surgeries every month and if hospitals like ours are taken over for Covid treatment, other patients will be adversely affected as the district has only few super speciality hospitals,” Sharma said.

JMM MLA Mathura Prasad Mahto admitted to the Dedicated Covid Hospital of Dhanbad on July 7 was referred to Tata Main Hospital in Jamshedpur on July 15 after developing some breathing issues. A senior doctor of the medicine department of PMCH, undergoing treatment at the Covid hospital, was also referred to TMH the same day with similar complications.

Dr A.K Singh, Dhanbad based state President of Indian Medical Association (IMA), said he was not in favour of the district administration taking over private hospitals to treat Covid patients. “Instead of taking them over, the district administration should encourage private hospitals to set up Covid treatment centres on their own. Taking over private hospitals will require the appointment of doctors to run them,” he noted.

Ashrafi Hospital, a superspeciality hospital of Dhanbad, has already announced plans to launch a Covid treatment facility by creating a separate block.

On Sunday, Dhanbad deputy commissioner Singh announced that the 100-bed Covid care centre set up at the cathlab building of PMCH would start functioning from Wednesday (July 22). This would ease the burden on the 100-bed Dedicated Covid Hospital of Dhanbad at Jagjivan Nagar.