The state health department has allowed private hospitals and nursing homes to increase their bed strength by up to 40 per cent to cope with the rising number of Covid patients in need of admission.

Private healthcare providers will not have to deposit any fees for extra beds, the department said in a circular.

“In the present scenario of resurgence of Covid-19 infections it has become necessary to increase the bed strength of all private nursing homes and hospitals to combat the present rising trend of Covid-19 positive cases,” Ajay Chakraborty, the state's director of health services, said in the notification.

“In the scenario of the Covid pandemic situation and under the provision of the West Bengal Epidemic Disease Covid 19 Regulations 2020, the health and family welfare department directs all registered clinical establishments in the state to develop isolation beds for treatment of Covid 19 suspect and positive cases. As such all private nursing homes and hospitals are allowed to enhance their present sanctioned strength upto 40 per cent more as per availability of space for management of active Covid-19 cases in the same infrastructure and for that they will not have to deposit any fees for extra beds.”

To ensure private healthcare institutions don’t face any hurdle, the health department has spelt out that enhancement of beds will be allowed under the existing clinical establishment licence. The institutions just need to intimate the local licensing authority.

The Telegraph has reported several times how the crisis of beds has led to many critical Covid patients being turned away by hospitals. Doctors suggest that if the oxygen saturation is below 93, then a patient suffering from Covid should get admitted.

But in several cases those with oxygen saturation as low as 85 are also forced to stay at home. Desperate family members search for oxygen cylinders.

Several private hospitals welcomed the move saying the new decision would greatly help in battling the surge.

“This is a great decision by the state health department. This is going to help in fighting the Covid situation in a big way,” said Pradip Tondon, the CEO of Belle Vue Clinic. The hospital now has 241 beds, about 80 per cent of which are for Covid patients.

“We have two new floors ready where we can accommodate 70 beds. We are waiting for the civic clearance, for which we applied two months back. Once it is received, we can equip the floor for Covid admissions since we don't need fresh permission from the health department,” said Tondon.

A few others said it would not be possible to increase the bed strength immediately given the lack of infrastructure and personnel.

“The only way to accommodate more patients is to increase the number of beds in all hospitals. However, we don't have space for such augmentation of beds, otherwise we would have taken the permission earlier,” said Sudipta Mitra, the chief executive of Peerless Hospital.

The hospital has 360 beds, of which 175 are for Covid patients.

Senior officials of the health department said the notification had been sent to the heads of all medical colleges in and around Calcutta asking them to explore ways to increase the number of beds.

“We have urged all medical colleges and hospitals, including the College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital, to make arrangements for accommodating more patients as early as possible,” said a senior official.