India’s private hospitals, now receiving an early trickle of Covid-19 patients, have asked the Centre to pinpoint the country’s “infection hotspots” to enable more hospitals to join the response to the outbreak. “We’re trying to identify well-equipped private hospitals that can step in if the outbreak becomes massive and the government’s Covid-19 hospitals are overwhelmed,” said Girdhar Gyani, AHPI executive director. “But the hospitals will need to prepare themselves: we need to know the locations where the government might need support from private hospitals,” Gyani said. Some private hospitals have already received a trickle of Covid-19 patients over the past two weeks, Gyani said. In the absence of any arrangement with the government, patients who turn to private hospitals would now be charged standard rates.

Source: The Telegraph March 29, 2020 21:22 UTC