Private medical practitioners to be allowed to set up COVID-19 Care Centres

They will be allowed to treat mild cases of COVID-19

Private medical practitioners will be permitted to establish COVID-19 Care Centres (CCC) in hotels, hostels, private schools and other available buildings. The State Appropriate Authority/Clinical Establishments Act would treat such standalone CCCs as temporary clinical establishments without requiring registration up to a period of 60 days from the date of permission. The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an increased demand for healthcare services and in-patient care. Considering the limited availability of oxygen-supported beds, the government has been ramping up facilities in all government hospitals. Since non-oxygen beds would be converted to oxygen beds for critical patients, a high-level committee advised the State Appropriate Authority, the Tamil Nadu Clinical Establishments Act (TNCEA), and the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services (DMS) to grant permission for private medical practitioners to establish CCCs with an undertaking to treat patients as per the guidelines issued by the government and manage biomedical waste generated as per the Bio Medical Management Act, the DMS said in a circular.