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Lanka Hospitals likely to get nod to treat COVID-19 patients
View(s):A private hospital is likely to get permission from the health authorities shortly to act as a treatment centre for COVID-19 patients, the Sunday Times learns as positive cases have risen to 43,856 with 208 deaths.
Top health officials have already visited two private hospitals to determine whether they have adequate facilities, after they sought permission to treat COVID-19 patients, said Health Services Director-General Dr. Asela Gunawardena. The two hospitals are Lanka Hospitals at Narahenpita, Colombo 5, and Nawaloka Hospitals at Colombo 2.
“We visited Lanka Hospitals last week and Nawaloka Hospitals two weeks ago,” said Dr. Gunawardena, explaining that Lanka Hospitals was “fairly satisfactory” but the health officials have requested some alterations to its set-up. If the hospital did the adjustments and submit a refined proposal, permission would be granted to it to treat COVID-19 patients.
Health officials, meanwhile, have advised Nawaloka Hospitals that the location is not suitable for treatment of COVID-19 patients as it is a very busy place and suggested that they look for a more suitable site.
Dr. Gunawardena reiterated that the programme to send patients to Lanka Hospitals, once approved, would be centrally-managed by the Department of Health Services, while patient management, including support in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) setting would be carried out by Lanka Hospitals. The patients would have to bear the full cost of such treatment.
The Sunday Times also learns that the ‘Big 5’ of private hospitals – Asiri Hospitals, Durdans Hospital, Hemas Hospitals, Lanka Hospitals and Nawaloka Hospitals – have been given the nod to conduct Rapid Antigen Tests on patients before they undergo any procedures such as surgeries.
“This will help these hospitals to exclude the important factor whether that patient is COVID-19 positive and prevent a large number of healthcare workers from getting exposed to the infection,” Dr. Gunawardena added.