Government and private hospitals in the state will have 11,500 more Covid beds in a week, health department officials said, the move expected to ease the crisis of beds that are forcing some health-care units to turn away patients with the coronavirus infection.

Government hospitals will have around 8,000 of the new beds, while the rest will be set up at private units.

The government has set up two task forces, led by senior health department officials, to liaison with the hospitals to ensure that the Covid bed strength achieved the target by the end of the week.

“The government is also planning to requisition some private hospitals for Covid treatment, like it did last year,” an official said.

Sambhunath Pandit Hospital, a satellite unit of SSKM Hospital, will be converted into a dedicated Covid hospital with 200 beds by the end of the week.

“The decision to add 11,500 Covid beds in government and private hospitals and run dedicated Covid hospitals were taken at a meeting chaired by chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay last week,” the official said.

Another official, however, said that merely increasing the bed count would not bring any relief to patients unless there were adequate beds with oxygen support and ventilators, whose availability is under question.

“The issue of deploying doctors trained in managing Covid patients is also haunting the health department,” the official said.

At a meeting on Friday, the chairperson of the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission had requested private hospitals to increase their Covid bed strength by 25 per cent compared with the number of beds they had at the peak of the epidemic last year.

Private hospitals had said increasing the number of Covid beds beyond a point would be a challenge because, unlike around this time last year, non-Covid patients, too, were queuing up in large numbers for admission.

The commission advised the hospitals to put on hold planned surgeries that can be postponed so that more beds could be reserved for the treatment of Covid patients.

On Monday, chief secretary Bandyopadhyay will meet officials of private hospitals to discuss how more Covid beds could be set up.

The task force for government hospitals will ensure that at least 20 per cent more Covid beds, compared with last year, were available this time.

The state government has also decided to approach central government institutions like Calcutta Port Trust, railways and defence, steel and coal authorities with the request that their health-care units be used for Covid-19 treatment.

“In a couple of days, a team of officials will approach these institutions to find out about the status of their healthcare facilities and how they can extend help to the state government,” said the official.

To create more facilities for accommodating Covid-19 patients, the state government has decided to encourage private hospitals that are part of the metropolitan hospitals' association to explore ways to set up satellite centres, where asymptomatic patients or those with mild symptoms can be accommodated.

A state government official will talk to representatives of the tourism industry and private hospitals and draw up a blueprint for immediate setting up of satellite facilities.

A satellite centre can be set up in a hotel, guest house or similar such facility. Doctors from the respective hospitals will visit the patients at these centres once a day and nurses will be available round-the-clock to monitor their health.

Another team of officials will ensure migrant workers returning home are shifted to safe homes from railway stations if they test positive for Covid.