Percentage of beds allotted to EWS patients at private hospitals paint dismal picture

The average occupancy of EWS beds in eight of the prominent hospitals was below five per cent for the period from May, 2015, to April, 2016. Surprisingly, this period includes the “dengue outbreak period” in the city when the Delhi government had mounted pressure on these hospitals to admit poor patients during that period.

Millennium Post is in possession of the monthly reports sent by these hospitals to Management Information System (MIS), Department of Health and Family Welfare, Delhi government. “The hospitals whose bed occupancy is below the minimum bed occupancy of 10 per cent will be sent notices and reminders,” said Hem Prakash, Additional Director (EWS). 

“The situation has improved since we started continuous monitoring but it still needs improvement,” he added. According to the data provided by the department, about 41 hospitals which are on “Real Time Availability of free Beds,” the online service of the Delhi government, 10 private hospitals have EWS bed occupancy slightly over 10 per cent. The bed occupancy of all the hospitals for the above said period is below 30 per cent except Venue Eye Institute & Research Center which has 107. 80 per cent of EWS bed occupancy. 

A month-wise analysis of the data reveals that a maximum 3,774 patients were admitted in these hospitals in September last year closely followed 3,396 patients in October as well, this was the period when Delhi was reeling under dengue outbreak. “The bed occupancy of these hospitals had increased significantly during the dengue outbreak due to inflow of patients suffering from high fever and government’s strict directions and monitoring,” added Prakash. 

The Liaison Officers (LOs) appointed in these hospitals informed that the low percentage of bed occupancy is due to slackness of nodal government hospitals which are authorised to refer poor patients to the respective hospitals. “The government hospitals hardly refer poor patients to these hospitals,” said an LO posted at Dharamshila Hospital in East Delhi. As per data with MIS, not even a single patient was referred from a government hospital to these private ones. The LOs, however, show some records of the patients referred from nearby government hospitals who were still awaiting treatment. “We are not paid for conveyance so, I come to this hospital and coordinate with other hospitals on mobile only,” said LO of Dharamshila Hospital who looks after three more hospitals.