Several private hospitals in the city have planned to open satellite units from this week to admit Covid patients who have mild symptoms and lack space at home to isolate themselves.
Most of the satellite units will have limited oxygen support, officials of the hospitals said.
The state health department had on Friday recommended that private hospitals open satellite units soon to keep hospital beds free for critical patients.
Kolkata Municipal Corporation, too, has planned to open a ‘safe home’ — with the same facilities as a satellite unit — this week.
The RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences will open its satellite unit on Monday.
“We will start with a 10-bed centre. We have booked one floor of a guest house near our hospital. If there is a rise in demand for beds at the satellite unit, we can scale it up within a day,” said R. Venkatesh, regional director of Narayana Health, which owns the RN Tagore hospital.
The hospital has also spoken with the management of another guest house in the neighbourhood where more beds can be set up, Venkatesh said.
Woodlands Multispeciality Hospitals has planned to open a 30-bed satellite unit on Gariahat Road in south-central Kolkata this week. The hospital had opened two satellite units during the second wave last year and has spoken with the owners of both properties.
“We will soon open a 30-bed satellite unit on Gariahat Road. Doctors, nurses and other medical staff will be present around the clock. There will be oxygen, emergency equipment and medicines. We are also planning to administer the monoclonal antibody therapy in the satellite unit. This is a day-care procedure that has to be monitored,” said Rupali Basu, managing director and CEO of Woodlands.
Belle Vue Clinic has spoken with owners of the hotel where they had opened a satellite unit during the second wave.
An official of the hospital said they would be in a position to open the satellite unit within a day or two from when they decide to open it. “We are not opening it immediately but keeping infrastructure ready so that we can open it very quickly when the need arises,” said the official.
While one can stay at the KMC ‘safe home’ for free, the satellite units of the private hospitals will have their own charges.
Someone seeking admission in a satellite centre can call up the hospital concerned.
“Even if the hospitalisation rate is lower for the omicron variant, which seems to be prevalent now, compared with the earlier delta variant, the absolute numbers of hospitalisation could be too high for our health-care system to cope with. With many more people getting infected, some will need hospital care and hospital beds need to be kept free for them,” said an official of a private hospital, explaining the reason for setting up satellite units.
On Sunday, 3,194 new Covid cases were reported from Kolkata and 6,153 cases from the entire state. On Saturday, 2,398 Covid cases were reported from the city and 4,512 from the entire state.