Delhi govt forms panel to ‘de-escalate’ Covid-dedicated beds

New Delhi, Dec 23 : As the third-wave of the coronavirus infection in the national capital has completely ebbed, the Delhi government has set up a four-member committee to make recommendations on reducing the number of hospital beds earmarked for the treatment of Covid-19 patients and re-initiation of non-Covid services.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led government formed the committee to “carefully assess the current position, including trends of hospital admission and discharges, and recommend graded de-escalation of Covid-dedicated beds”.
The committee has also been asked to recommend “whether ICU and other critical care beds should, at this stage, form part of the proposed de-escalation”.
It has also been directed to ensure that the capacity de-escalation recommendations strike a harmonious balance between regional and locational access across all categories of hospitals and need to have a buffer capacity for patients from the neighbouring states.
The committee includes Special Secretary (Health) Udit Prakash Rai, Director General of Health Services (DGHS) Nutan Mundeja, National Centre of Disease Control’s (NCDC) Dr. Suneet Kaur and Dr. Anant Mohan, AIIMS’s Professor and Head of Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine.
The four-member committee will submit its recommendations latest by Wednesday evening.