Zydus, Columbia, KD to share 50% beds now

Three big private hospitals in the city have agreed to share 50 per cent of their beds for treatment of Covid patients in the wake of an order passed by Gujarat High Court last week. Zydus hospital (in Thaltej), Columbia Asia hospital (also in Thaltej and which belongs to Zydus) and KD hospital (at Vaishnodevi circle) have agreed to reserve 213 out of their total 425 beds for the AMC. The hospitals have handed over their consent letters in this regard to the AMC.

These hospitals were not included in the list of 42 hospitals which had signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

Ahmedabad Mirror in its report, 'Why Zydus is not a Covid hospital', (AM, May 19) had stated how despite Ahmedabad being among the top Covid hotspots in the country and Gujarat second only to Maharashtra in terms of coronavirus cases and deaths, the city's best hospital - Zydus Hospital - has failed to garner the attention of the State government in converting it into a Covid-19 hospital. This when 42 private hospitals had been converted into Covid treatment facilities by Gujarat government.


This was stated in a reply filed by the State government in Gujarat High Court in response to strict remarks passed by the bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and I J Vora in its orders issued on May 14 and 22. The newly constituted bench will hear the plea on Friday.

Now the total capacity of the beds in the private hospitals in the city is 2,048 in 45 hospitals. "The total number of functional beds available at Zydus hospital, Asia Columba hospital and KD Hospital is 425, out of which if 50 per cent beds are considered for AMC, then 213 beds will be reserved for the AMC," the government reply stated. "Therefore, the total number of functional beds in the 45 hospitals is 3,303, out of which 2,048 beds have been reserved for the AMC. These 2,048 beds would be in addition to 2,964 beds at Civil Hospital and other AMC and government hospitals in the city," the reply stated.

As per the reply, the government has decided not to include Apollo CVHF hospital as it is dedicated for the heart ailment and in place of it Apollo City Center hospital near Parimal garden has been roped in for the Covid treatment.

Meanwhile, the government also informed that the private hospitals have shown inability to reduce rates further than decided on May 16, still they have reduced more 10% rates for the treatment.

During the previous hearing, the court questioned why other than 42 hospitals included in the government notification issued earlier this week have not been requisitioned by the state government?

The court suggested that the number of charitable and multi-specialty hospitals should be open for Covid treatment as it will be difficult to negotiate with the hospitals in case of growing numbers of cases. So, the government should make discussions and negotiations to add more number of hospitals for Covid treatment. The court also suggested to reduce rates further than the rates decided for the private hospitals.