April 26, 2021 is a date Riddhi Wallia, Founder of Mirabilis Inc is unlikely to forget in a hurry. Just 11 days before, she had left from Mumbai to attend to some urgent repairs in her house in Pune. However, that night, her older brother called her saying he had high fever. Soon her mother and everyone else at home developed similar symptoms and subsequently, the entire household tested COVID positive.
Since she could not go home, she moved to her friend’s home in Mumbai’s Bandra suburb. On 26th April, however, her mother’s condition worsened, and she had to be rushed to Hinduja Hospital where Wallia first moved her to casualty and finally to the ICU as her oxygen levels were dropping.
“Now that I had been in a hospital myself, I could not go back to my friend’s home and could not go home either since it was sealed. So, I checked into Hotel Shubhangan in Khar West. The hotel was like living at home. While I was completely stressed about my mum’s health, the hotel’s manager and limited hotel staff looked after me like their family, catering to my every need at any given time, deep cleaning the room every single day, sometimes twice a day and just being warm and wonderful always,” says Wallia of her 10 day stay. While she needed isolation, hotels are doing much more this time.
HOSPITAL ALLIANCES
When COVID-19 hit last year, hospitality was amongst the most impacted industries in the country. While it had started taking small However, this time, several hotels quickly partnered with hospitals and medical facilities to give their business a fillip. Royal Orchid Resort & Convention Centre, Yelahanka, Bengaluru, for instance, set up a separate 20-room isolation facility for COVID-positive patients.
“We have tied up with Navachetana Hospital, a well-known hospital in the sector. They refer patients for home isolation, who prefer to stay at our hotel. We provide facilities including 24/7 doctor-on-call and nurses who are stationed at our property. The entire medical side of the set-up is being looked after by Navachetana Hospital,” said Anup Nair, General Manager, Royal Orchid Resort & Convention Centre, Bengaluru.
QUARANTINE WITH CARE
Hotels are also lending support for patients with mild symptoms by ensuring that hospitals are not choked with demand. Select WelcomHotels including Welcomhotel Dwarka (Delhi), Welcomhotel Coimbatore and recovery steps, the second wave once again slammed the brakes, Welcomhotel Bengaluru have converted into paid quarantine facilities in partnership with local hospitals.
“We hope this will help flatten the curve while ensuring hospital beds are available for patients. The reservations are only when partner hospitals refer patients so that our large room inventory can be used to help the hospital. It is need-based and will be evaluated from time to time,” said Anil Chadha, COO, ITC Hotels.
Guests who wish to avail of this facility are guided to the affiliate hospital who assess their condition and validate the level of care, medical attention or treatment that the guest needs. Asymptomatic guests are then assigned by the hospital to Welcomhotels.
As part of the affiliation, the hospital places their designated healthcare professionals to monitor key parameters and guest wellbeing considering they are under the hospital’s supervision. In Bengaluru, Taj Yeshwantpur has partnered with Columbia Asia and People Tree Hospitals.
“The partner hospitals refer patients who are asymptomatic positive or mildly symptomatic to the hotel. They also ensure that the patient’s oxygen saturation is in the normal range, as our facilities do not have oxygen support. In case the patient becomes ill, they are immediately shifted to a hospital facility. This is coordinated between the hospital partner and the state’s medical facilities. Our partner hospitals on-board patients and take care of all their tests and provide nursing staff on site to monitor vital parameters, at these quarantine facilities across cities. Taj Yeshwantpur provides all meals within prescribed protocols,” said Somnath Mukherjee, Area Director – Karnataka, IHCL.
ISOLATION FACILITIES
Some hotels in the country have opened rooms for people who want to isolate and self-quarantine for various reasons. This could include them coming in contact with a COVID-positive patient, and wanting to stay away from their family for their safety, though they themselves are free from the ailment.
Talking about this, Vinesh Gupta, General Manager, The Den explained, “Hoteliers have now become caregivers for people who want peace of mind. We have our regular, long-staying guests. Hence, we decided to take only the caregivers and isolation guests who have negative RT-PCR reports.
We also run errands for members of the family who may be positive, but where the rest of the family wants to isolate and stay at the hotel.” He added that all the isolation guests are placed on separate floors,
and the rooms are sanitised and sealed 24 hours prior to arrival. Linens are washed separately in high temperature to keep them germ free. “We keep separate dusters in our isolation rooms, while our rooms have separate air flow units with a separate task team who are well trained to handle and serve the isolated guests,” Gupta added. The hotel, in fact, has a bubble service team, keeping guests’ safety in mind and has been conducting weekly RT-PCR tests for its employees for the last three months.
HELPING HANDS
Acute shortage of beds in hospitals and the need to help critical and serious patients has seen hotels extend their infrastructure to reduce the load on the hospitals. The Lalit Great Eastern Kolkata has a tie up with AMRI Hospitals and set up a ‘Satellite Care Unit’ with a dedicated block of 100 rooms. Dilip Mishra, General Manager, The Lalit Great Eastern Kolkata said, “Patients are provided with well-appointed rooms with all 5-star facilities. Meals are served in the room as per dietician’s recommendations. The patients’ vital medical readings are monitored every 24 hours and doctors and nursing assistance is provided round the clock. In case of any serious symptoms the patients are moved into their hospital using the ambulance parked in the hotel premises throughout.”
To reduce the burden on hospitals, asymptomatic COVID-19 positive patients who do not need immediate oxygen support are helped at The LaLit Ashok Bangalore. Kumar Manish, General Manager, of the property added, “For COVID-19 patients, we assist with Virtual/ Physical doctor consultation, 24/7 nurse availability, ambulance facility, Coffee/Tea, meals, Wi-fi access and parking, fully furnished rooms with single and double occupancy, services as per guidelines issued by Government of Karnataka. We have tied up with Apollo Sreeshadripuram. Oxygen concentrator back-up for emergency purpose is also available for patients already admitted.”
SENIOR CARE
There has been a paradigm shift from the lockdown of last year as the medical intervention needed is far greater and more intense. Sarovar Hotels and Resorts in partnership with I am Gurgaon and Emoha Elder Care has dedicated Golden Tulip Hotel Sector 29, Gurugram as a 60 bed COVID Care Center largely for senior citizens.
“This is a time when the there is a lot of stress for senior citizens. Hence, this property was converted into a home for elders to recover in an environment that is clean, peaceful and equipped with sufficient oxygen concentrators. The on-site clinical and nursing attention, constant monitoring and online activities for emotional wellbeing ensure they can recover in this good atmosphere,” said Ajay Bakaya, MD, Sarovar Hotels and Resorts.
This facility is aimed for elders who are COVID-19 positive and are unable to take care of themselves in their homes. This has also helped ease the worries of their children who are abroad as they know that their parents are under good care. Sarovar Hotels and Resorts has partnered with Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram for COVID Consultations for this affiliation.
SUPPORT SYSTEM
For the last year or so, IHCL has been partnering and extending support to the people affected by the pandemic and the medical fraternity who are tirelessly helping patients. The hospitality major converted many of its hotels across India into quarantine facilities with hospital partners.
“In Hyderabad, out of our five hotels, we have converted two; Taj Banjara and Vivanta, into the quarantine facilities, in partnership with Apollo Hospitals and Care Hospitals. The company is also delivering nutritious meals to the medical staff in multiple cities along with corporate, individual and NGO partners. This has been done through IHCL’s airline catering brand -Taj Sats.
In Hyderabad, we are delivering around 1400 meals every day from the Taj Falaknuma Palace to the state-run Gandhi Hospital. We have associated with Chef Sanjeev Kapoor and the World Central Kitchen for this initiative, and together we are ensuring a nourishing and safe meal reaches the doctors and medical staff of the hospital. IHCL has taken these initiatives through the ‘Taj Public Service Welfare Trust’ (TPSWT) to extend support to the community and navigate through this crisis,” said Ian Dubier, Area Director Hyderabad and Taj Santacruz Mumbai and General Manager of Taj Krishna, Hyderabad, IHCL.
SAFETY MATTERS
During the second wave of COVID-19, hotels have ramped up sanitisation procedures. This is helping them even more now as they take on the mantle of supporting hospitals. Most hotels follow safety recommendations in accordance with guidelines published by the World Health Organization (WHO), Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and the Government of India.
“We assure comfortable, clean rooms using advanced safety and cleaning protocols commensurate. Re-engineered processes ensure maximum safety across touchpoints. We take all care and precautions to assure guests of a worry-free, comfortable stay. The packages that have been worked out by the hospitals include hygienic, nutritious, and healthy meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) using local and fresh produce prepared with care and mindfulness and delivered through a contactless knock and drop service,” said Anil Chadda.
All mandated government protocols have been implemented across all hotels. “The floors assigned for the COVID care facility have bubble services and the set of staff do not travel beyond those floors; pre-packed meals are placed outside the room door in disposable containers. Guests discard used containers and cutlery in the dedicated dustbins. Additional measures have been taken per direction of partner hospitals to ensure sanitisation standards, social distancing measures, usage of PPE’s and availability of on-site medical staff for monitoring of vital parameters,” added Mukherjee.
Hospitality has once again proven that in times of crisis, they can scale up operations and think out of the
box even as India fights its deadly second wave of the coronavirus.
