Private hosps black marketing beds to covid-19 patients will not be spared: Arvind Kejriwal

Making it clear that the private hospitals will have to treat Covid-19 patients in the national capital, Kejriwal said it cannot be negotiated on any terms.

“Please give me a few days… We will finish this business of black marketing of beds,” Kejriwal said during a video conference today.

"Private hospitals have played a great role in supporting the health system of Delhi and the people of Delhi salute them for their contribution. But, there are some hospitals who are resorting to illegal means of making money even in times of epidemic. First they deny availability of beds and when the people insist, they ask  2 lakh, 5 lakh, 8 lakh rupees for admitting a patient..what is this, if not black marketing of beds?" he said.

There was no clarity over the number of beds in a hospital and how many of them were empty at a given point of time, Kejriwal said, adding that this allowed some private players to black market the beds. In order to curb the illegal practice, the Delhi government launched an app last Tuesday, he said.

"We decided to make the information transparent..we have given the login ids and passwords to each private hospital and now they are updating the available beds, ventilators, etc to deal with covid-19," he added.

"Some private hospitals are telling patients that they don't have beds and ventilators contrary to the information they are uploading in the app," he alleged.

"It would take some time to break these health sector mafias, who have influence in almost all poltical parties and using it they are trying to build pressure on us...but, I am telling all of them you will have to take coronavirus patients and treat them," he asserted.

There cannot be any negotiation on reserving 20 per cent of beds for coronavirus patients, barring some cases which are unavoidable, he asserted.

In order to ensure this, Delhi government officials held meeting with the management of 33 private hospitals in Delhi and rest shall be covered today, he said.

"We tried and resolved hospitals facing genuine issues in admitting covid patients..but others have to admit the infected patients..there will be no negotiation on this," he stated.