Lanka Hospitals gets green light to run Intermediate Care Centre

• Rs. 18,000 will be charged per day at Hotel in Colombo
• Covid patients can receive treatment here under Health Ministry supervision

By Sunil Jayasiri  

Lanka Hospitals Ltd, Colombo has been given permission to run an Intermediate Care Centre (ICC) at a luxury hotel in Colombo to treat COVID-19 patients, Army Commander General Shavendra Silva said.  

“The Health authorities and National Operation Centre for the Prevention of COVID-19, has given permission to Lanka Hospitals to run a paid ICC under the supervision of the Health Ministry,” General Silva told the Daily Mirror last evening.

He also said that Lanka Hospitals is to charge Rs.18,000 per day from patients. He said that they received two proposals, one from Lanka Hospitals and the other from another leading private hospital in this regard. “But we had to turn down the proposal from the second private hospital as the hotel they have proposed, failed to meet the required requirements,” he said. Meanwhile, General Silva said that the Koggala Long Beach Hotel, which had been converted into a paid treatment centre for COVID- 19 patients on January 7, has now exceeded its full capacity.

“We only had 100 rooms at the Koggala Long Beach Hotel, now all are occupied with patients, so we are going to add 40 more rooms soon,” he said adding that “we are only charging Rs 12,000 per day from a patient.” The government initiated this programme to allow private hospitals to run paid ICC under the directive of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, considering the people who are reluctant to receive treatment at Government hospitals but still can afford to get treatment from private hospitals.