Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said there was no shortage of hospital beds in the capital for Covid-19 patients and warned the hospitals of strict action if they engage in black marketing of beds.
“Some private hospitals are refusing to reserve beds for Corona patients out of their assumption that they are powerful and have contacts in other parties. Strict action will be taken against all such hospitals involved in malpractices in these distressing times.” Kejriwal said in a virtual media briefing.
“As of today, no dearth of beds. Against 8645 total available beds, 4038 occupied n 4607 vacant. These are real beds, not mere figures. As of today, sufficient beds available. But some of them refuse admission. We won’t permit their mischief. Give us a few days. We are at it,” Kejriwal said.
The Chief Minister said, “Delhi government will deploy medical professionals in every private hospital in the city to shun false refusals of admission to the patients and black-marketing of beds by the hospital authorities.”
He further said that a mobile application has been launched by the state government to stop the black marketing of beds in hospitals treating COVID-19 patients in Delhi to make the information of availability of these services transparent.
Delhi has so far reported 26,334 COVID-19 cases with 708 deaths. 15,311 are active cases while 10,315 have been cured/discharged, according to Health Ministry data.
