UP govt reverses referral letter for admittance rule

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday said no referral letter of any kind would be required by any hospital in the state – private or government – for admission for Covid-19 patients, doing away with a rule that had been creating hurdles for patients looking for urgent hospitalisation, often causing avoidable deaths.

The government also said that in the first phase, it will start vaccination of those 18 years and above on May 1 only in seven districts that have more than 9,000 active Covid-19 cases. This includes Lucknow, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Meerut and Bareilly.

Private hospitals had been exempted from the rule on referral letters after reports that this was causing untold hardship to patients and their kin. However, the CM has now decided to scrap the rule altogether, saying that any patient can, as per his convenience, get admitted to any hospital – private or government – and no hospital can deny admission if they have a bed. The opposition had also pressured the government into revoking this rule as the Covid Command Centre that facilitated these approvals by the chief medical officer, remained non-responsive, leading to delays in patients getting medical care.


Getting back to work after testing negative for Covid on Friday, CM Adityanath made some important decisions to control the wavering state of Covid management in UP. Apart from doing away with the referral system, the CM also created a new team of nine ministers and secretaries, apart from his core team of 11 administrative officers, who will look into many crucial areas that have cropped up in the second wave, fixing greater accountability.