Odisha Channel Bureau
Bhubaneswar: Odisha government’s Health Department on Monday directed all District Collectors and Municipal Commissioners to close down Temporary Medical Centres (TMCs) and Community Care Homes (CCHs) immediately.
Stating that occupancy in TMCs and CCHs was virtually nil, the State Health Department said these facilities should be immediately closed down.
Observing further that occupancy in the COVD Care Centres (CCCs) has dramatically fallen and in many them there were no patients, the Health Department asked the local administrations to close down CCCs wherever there are no patients.
In other CCCs where the occupancy is less it should be scaled down and the manpower be remobilised to their original positions, and in case of CCHs, the health personnel can be redeployed in the districts where their services can be better utilized, Additional Chief Secretary P.K. Mohapatra said in his letter.
Mohapatra asked the Collectors to personally monitor this exercise and give compliance on a daily basis to Special Relief Commissioner. “In case of any emergency requirement of these facilities, it can be created at a short notice as buffer,” he said.
In the beginning of the fight against COVID-19, the TMCs were set up in all gram panchayats across the State to ensure institutional quarantine of Odia migrant workers returning to their native places from other States in the wake of the nationwide lockdown.
Subsequently, the CCHs and CCCs were set up in both rural and urban areas to isolate suspected COVID-19 cases for testing and further action.
Private hospitals asked to reserve beds for COVID-19 patients
As the number of COVID-19 patients was increasing in urban centres of the State, the State government on Monday amended its advisory for provisioning of a COVID-19 unit in private hospitals with a capacity of 30 or more beds.
All private hospitals having bed strength of 30 or above located in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Sambalpur, Berhampur and Rourkela Municipal Corporations limits shall mandatorily designate a minimum 50% of their general beds and 80% of ICUs for treatment of COVID positive patients, with an option to convert the entire hospital as a COVID hospital, the government said.
The government further ordered that the hospitals shall charge the patients at the rate as communicated by the government on August 28.
