Cap treatment cost at pvt hospitals: Centre to states

NEWDELHI:THE Union health ministry asked the states on Monday to negotiate with private hospitals and fix a price for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) treatment in order to address complaints from the public of overcharging by some establishments.

In a statement, the ministry also asked states to engage with private healthcare providers to facilitate enhanced bed availability and critical-care health facilities.

“In order to ensure that patients receive prompt, good quality and care at reasonable rates, it has been suggested to States to have consultations with the local private healthcare providers and arrive at reasonable rates, while factoring in cost elements for personal safety equipments for healthcare providers,” read a statement from the ministry released late on Monday.

The ministry pointed out that some states had already reached an agreement with the private sector on “reasonable rates” and said that once fixed, the rates must be widely publicized. Telangana announced the upperlimit for testing and treatment on Monday. “States have also been asked to proactively engage with the private sector health providers and consider pooling in public and private healthcare facilities, as this will help in providing prompt, good quality and reasonable health care to Covid-19 patients,” the statement added.

With infections soaring in India over the past week and an average of roughly 10,000 cases being reported daily, there has been an increased demand for critical-care beds and complaints that patients in several badly hit cities were denied timely treatment.

India currently has 958 dedicated Covid-19 hospitals, with 167,883 isolation beds, 21,614 intensive care unit beds and 73,469 oxygen supported beds. There are 2,313 dedicated Covid health centres with 133,037 isolation beds; 10,748 ICU beds and 46,635 oxygen supported beds have also been operationalised.

Across 7,525 Covid care centres, there are 7,10,642 beds are available. There are currently 21,494 ventilators available.

Private sector operators urged the government to keep in mind the costs of providing health care.