Intensifying its fight against swine flu, the state government has begun certifying private hospitals for treatment of swine flu. So far nine private hospitals have come forward to join hands with the government to fight the disease.
A team from the government has visited five hospitals and have certified them as having the necessary infrastructure to treat the disease. The move to include private hospitals in the fight against swine flu is part of the government's precaution strategy.
"In case the capacity of government hospitals fall short, which is unlikely to happen, the patients would be referred to private hospitals," said Jaynarayan Vyas, health minister of Gujarat. "The government has formed a team that will visit the private hospitals, which are interested in treating swine flu patients, and will certify them as swine flu treatment competitive if they fulfil certain criteria," Vyas told media persons on Sunday.
Some of the criteria are that the hospitals must have are, an isolation ward and ventilator facility. The government has recognised five hospitals in the state and signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with them.
This includes Shrey Hospital, Sterling Hospital and Karnavati Hospital in Ahmedabad, Mahavir Hospital in Surat and Wockhardt Hospital in Rajkot, Vyas said. According to this MoU, if a swine flu patient is referred to private hospital, it should charge fees in line with the government hospitals.
Moreover, the patient need not to bear the cost of treatment as the government would reimburse it to the private hospital. However, in case of a patient who can afford treatment at a private hospital, chooses to get treated in one such hospital on his own, the hospital can charge according to its norms and the concerned patient will have to bear the cost, Vyas said.
The government's step to sign MoU with private hospitals will serve a double purpose.
The move will help certify private hospitals as swine flu treatment competitive and in case of emergency the government can have make use of private hospitals to treat the patients.
At present, in Civil Hospital Ahmedabad, G3 ward is used as an isolation ward for swine flu patients. Moreover, F4 ward could also be used for treatment of swine flu patients, said Vyas.
Though the private hospitals could treat the swine flu patients, private laboratories will not be allowed to carry out tests for swine flu. The health minister said carrying out swine flu testing could prove to be dangerous for the staff of private hospitals. At present, the laboratory set up at BJ Medical College has capacity of carrying out 90 tests per day.
The centre has around two crore capsules of tamiflu and it has sent around one lakh of these capsules to Gujarat, which has been distributed at the district level.
Both the centre and the state have covered production of tamiflu under essential commodity act. The centre has also provided enough number of testing kits for swine flu, he said.
