Telangana governor to meet private hospital managements to \'resolve\' COVID-19 crisis

Hyderabad: Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Monday said she will be meeting the managements of private hospitals Tuesday morning to "resolve" public grievances such as billing, availability of beds, and COVID-19 testing.

The governor said cordial private-public participation was required for successful eradication of COVID-19.

Soundararajan, who has previously expressed her disappointment with the state government over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, on Monday took to Twitter and interacted with people on the management of the disease in the state. She said she called the chief secretary and the special chief secretary (health) to discuss the COVID-19 situation.

Replying to a suggestion that she issue strict rules for everyone to follow, the governor said she had been “continuously on this job at various levels in the past three months”.

She said she gave suggestions to the state government, visited NIMS and had discussions with the Health University vice-chancellor and member of the TS COVID-19 team. She said she discussed the situation with superintendents of COVID-dedicated government hospitals recently.

“Noted the present situation and working on it,” the governor tweeted.

Many who reacted to the governor’s tweets complained to her about the COVID-19 situation in the Greater Hyderabad area and said the scene in Hyderabad was really bad, that there was a lack of adequate testing and absence of contact tracing by the government, and excessive billing and fleecing of patients by private hospitals.