Bengaluru, Sep 17 (IANS): With Bengaluru seeing a spike in the Covid-19 cases and strapped for additional beds, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) issued final show-cause notice to as many as 36 private hospitals in the city for not dedicating 50 per cent of beds to government assigned patients.

BBMP commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad, who has issued show-cause notices to all 36 hospitals individually on Wednesday late night and set the 48 hours deadline for them to fall in line.

He has also warned that if the erring 36 hospitals fail to comply with the deadline, the BBMP would start initiating action under section 15 and 19 of the Karnataka Private Medical Establishment Act (KPME) by immediately suspending registration besides fine and imprisonment also. Besides invoking provisions of KPME Act, the BBMP would also book these hospitals under Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Ordinance - 2020, he added.

Apart from this, the BBMP commissioner has also cautioned that the erring hospitals could be booked under Disaster Management Act as well for not cooperating with the government in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prasad has also directed the erring hospitals to update the Suvarna Arogya Suraksh Trust portal (SAST) with all the details of government referred patients and private patients to reflect the bed occupancy. "The hospitals must furnish details of Covid-19 patients," he declared in the notice.

Despite repeated efforts, many private hospitals/establishments did not comply with the June 23 government order. The government had categorised hospitals based on the number of bed occupancy. As many as 21 of the 36 hospitals have capacity of more than 100 beds.

According to the show-cause notice issued to the BGS Hospital, the BBMP commissioner has charged and questioned why the private hospitals had turned away Covid patients referred by the government? "The state government had issued an order as early as June 23, to dedicate 50 per cent of their beds for government assigned patients. This only means hospitals have turned away patients referred by us (the government) and given it to private patients," the notice read.

These include many of the reputed hospitals in the city like - Manipal Hospital, Vikram Hospital & Sakra hospital, Apollo Hospital, Narayana Hrudalaya Pvt Ltd, Bangalore Baptist Hospital, Chris Super Speciality Hospital, HBS Hospital Trust, Medihope Hospital, Nandana health Care Services, New Janapriya Super Speciality, Santosh Hospital, SHIFAA Hospital, SI Vega Hospital, Speciality Health System, BSG Global and, Sagar Hospital Jayanagar.

Among the hospitals that had to dedicate between 50 and 100 beds, 10 have defaulted. These include Ramaiah Harsha Hospital, healthcare Global Enterprise, Suraksha Hospital Yelahanka, NU Hospital Pvt Ltd and Republic Hospital.

Another five hospitals which were supposed to dedicate 20 to 50 beds have also been issued notices. One of the defaulters, BSG Global Hospital, had to dedicate 50 beds towards government referrals. Of these 40 beds were to be given in the general ward, five ICU beds and five ICU beds with ventilators.