'Only emergency orthopedic surgeries allowed at pvt hosps in Berhampore civic area'

Kolkata: State Health department on Friday issued notification saying that no orthopedic surgeries can be conducted on patients at the private hospitals under Swasthya Sathi card in the Berhampore municipality areas other than emergency patients.

The department has taken the decision after it received a series of complaints relating to orthopedic surgeries in private hospitals. Now it will be implemented within Berhampore in Murshidabad. The state government can enforce the rule in the rest of Bengal.

The notification said that the patients who want to undergo orthopedic surgeries at private health establishments under the Swasthya Sathi scheme have to undergo checkup at the Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital. If the medical college is unable to treat the patients for any reasons, it can then refer the patients to a private hospital. The patients will be able to undergo orthopedic surgeries at the private hospitals under Swasthya Sathi only if they are recommended by Murshidabad Medical College.

Sources said that the health department spotted some irregularities in the process of how the surgeries were carried out in some private health establishments. Many private hospitals earlier misused packages. There were many packages like gallbladder treatment, appendix, fracture and repair where fudged bills were prepared. To raise the bill, many private hospitals had treated a patient under more than one package when he/she did not require it at all. The Health department has already cracked the whip on multiple packaging under the Swasthya Sathi scheme, which had been rampantly done by private hospitals against patients, thereby clubbing several packages together, eventually leading to an exorbitant bill amount.

Ever since the Swasthya Sathi scheme was introduced by the Mamata Banerjee government, a section of the private hospitals has been creating obstacles in various ways. There were incidents reported in the past as well where private hospitals indulged in corrupt practices and submitted false bills to the Health department.