No more free Corona tests and treatment in TMH from Dec 1: Dr. Rajan Chaudhry

Recovery rate in TMH reaches 89.33%, admissions down too, marriage season crucial for preventing spread of virus

Jamshedpur: All Corona tests and treatment in TMH would be chargeable from December 1, 2020. The treatment and tests have been free in the hospital till now, but from December 1, 2020, these would be made chargeable and different rates would apply according to the requirements of the patients to be admitted in the hospital.

Revealing this, Dr. Rajan Chaudhry, Advisor, Medical Services, Tata Steel today said that the services would be made chargeable from December 1.

Interacting with the media, he said that for now coronavirus is on the decline in Jamshedpur. However, the pandemic is not yet over and the next 10 days are going to prove crucial in determining whether the city would have to go through a second wave of the pandemic or it would succeed in avoiding it.

Dr. Rajan Chaudhry, Advisor, Medical Services, Tata Steel today said that the citizens would have to remain cautious during the next 10 days, during which a number of marriage ceremonies are slated to be held.

He said that there is no vaccine available yet, and there is a need to remain cautious.

Addressing a teleconference with media, he said that the recovery rate for TMH has reached 89.33% and the number of new admissions too has come down drastically. He said that these days only 25 to 30 corona patients are being admitted per week, while this number of higher than this a few weeks back.

As expected, he said, the number of discharge from the hospital too has come down. Every week around 50 patients are being discharged.

Dr. Chaudhry said that TMH has completed 89,028 tests, including 43,223 RT PCR tests. The positivity rate for RT PCR test is 1.25%, while the positivity rate for RAT is 1.51%.

He said that the positivity rate is below 5%, which is excellent as far as controlling the pandemic is concerned. However, he said, patients are still coming and the pandemic is still here. He said that complying with social distancing measures and taking safety precautions including use of hand wash and sanitisers is extremely important.

He said that marriage ceremonies are occasions when people tend to form crowds and may ignore safety precautions. This may cause a surge in the pandemic in the days to come.

He said that all over the world only serious cases are being admitted in hospitals. Keeping this in view, the number of beds for Corona in TMH has been reduced. Now, only 263 beds have been kept reserved in TMH, while, 100 beds have been kept outside TMH in the hostel. In all, TMH has 1028 beds.

Dr. Chaudhry said that other patients are being treated in the normal way and TMH Prime and OPD services have been normalised. However, ICU, CCU and HDU have lesser beds.

Now on, from December 1, as per the guidelines of Jharkhand government, all tests and treatment of corona would be chargeable. Free tests and treatment have been discontinued.

He said that from December 1, RT PCR tests would cost Rs. 1050, while RAT would cost Rs. 550 and Antibody testing would cost Rs. 250.

Admissions with fever and need of oxygen would cost Rs. 8000 to Rs. 12,000 per day, depending upon the requirements of invasive or non-invasive oxygen requirement. Those who have been admitted till November 30 would continue to be treated free. But, those who are admitted from December 1 would have to pay for treatment, that includes Rs. 5000 as admission fee and if ICU is required then Rs. 19,000 as admission fee.

Dr. Chaudhry said that Tata Steel has spent Rs. 100 cr on treatment of corona patients in Jharkhand till date. He said that 3986 patients have been treated free.

The teleconference was also attended by Kulwin Suri, Chief, Corporate Communications, Tata Steel and Runa Rajeev Kumar, Head, Corporate Communications.

It may be recalled that the Jharkhand government on October 9, 2020 had amended the covid-19 treatment package tariff after consultation with the representatives of private hospitals. The government had divided the districts in three categories and hospitals into two categories.