PGI proposes to exclude meals from bed charges

LUCKNOW: Patients admitted to the SGPGI may now have to pay extra for meals, expenses for which were earlier included in their bed charges.

The premier medical institute has proposed to increase bed charges and also exclude meals from it, which will cost extra for the patients.

As per the proposal sent to the state government, bed charges of private wards would be raised from ` 1,000 to ` 1,500 and for general wards from ` 250 to ` 300.

“This is another effort to turn it into an only for VVIPs hospital,” lamented one of the patients.

However, PGI authorities say excluding food expenses from bed charges would help the institute save Rs 2 crore per annum, which they used to pay to the kitchen contractor annually.

The authorities at PGI are trying to justify this by saying that the prices were not raised for last 20 years.

Critics say earlier many poor patients used to pay Rs 250 daily as bed charges, which included a healthy diet that helped them recover. But now poor patients will have to pay around Rs 120 extra for food.

The premier medical institute receives crores of rupees as aid from the state for maintenance of buildings, electrical wiring and hospital equipment. These funds, critic say, could also be utilised for providing food to the patients.

The PGI’s general body has already passed the proposal but the state government may reject the proposal to hike the rates, which are already more than other state hospitals.

The Samajwadi government is in favour of giving free treatment to patients and it cannot bat for increasing rates, said an insider.

PGI director Rakesh Kapoor said, “We have proposed 10% hike in charges for investigations, therapeutic procedures, 20% increase in diagnostics and 50% in OT charges. The ICU bed charges would be increased from Rs 500 to Rs 750 and postoperative bed charges would be increased from Rs 350 to Rs 500.”

However, there’s no proposal for hike in charges for MRI, CT scan and PET scan.