Panel set to submit draft seeking split charges in Swasthya Sathi

Kolkata: The private hospitals will submit a draft to the State government proposing a rationalisation of package rates under the Swasthya Sathi scheme.

A committee that has been set up with representation from the top six hospitals in the city who will hold a meeting on Thursday discussing the issues which will be taken up with the government. A draft will be prepared on the basis of the decision taken during the meeting. The draft will be submitted to the Health secretary.

The private hospital may seek a revision from the government in the charges of non-critical patients and critical patients requiring ICU. The state government used to provide private hospitals around Rs 1,500 for non-critical patients and Rs 3,000 for the patients who need ICU beds.

The private hospitals may urge the government to segregate the charges like doctor fees, costs relating to various investigations and the bed charges under the Swasthya Sathi scheme after the State government has brought the entire population under the scheme. Swasthya Sathi, the brain child of the Bengal Chief Minister has gone up to the extent of universal health care as all the private hospitals now have to provide treatment to the patients in all the departments. Earlier, the private hospitals used to treat patients in one or two departments under the Swasthya Sathi scheme. But now the scheme has been expanded by a huge margin in terms of the number of people covered.

A senior official of a top private hospital said that since the State government has come up with a noble purpose to ensure free health treatment to all the people of the state, the organization of private hospitals are also ready to keep the costs low and reasonable. But the basic minimum charges must be maintained in order to provide quality health care, the official stated.

The State government has already asked the private hospitals to submit a draft mentioning their demands. The private hospitals have also been directed to chalk out a standard operating procedure (SoP) to ensure that people can avail treatment free of costs without any difficulties.