‘Govt hosps seeing a trend of critical patients being transferred from pvt establishments’

Kolkata: The state government medical colleges in the city are witnessing a trend of critical patients being shifted from private hospitals as the family members are unable to afford the huge burden of treatment costs at private establishments.

This often creates a huge burden on the government-run hospitals.

According to sources, nearly 50 per cent of the patients in the critical care units of some of the government medical colleges are often occupied by those who are being transferred from private hospitals as their family members fail to arrange funds that are required for the treatment in private establishments.

According to an estimate, around 50 per cent of total beds in the critical care units of the state-owned medical colleges in Kolkata are generally occupied by patients coming from private hospitals. In most of the cases, these patients are shifted after the family members fail to bear the costs of the treatment.

As a result, it sometimes becomes difficult for government hospitals to accommodate their own patients in the critical care unit due to the lack of a vacant bed. A senior official of the health department said that there has been an instruction to the private hospitals that they should inform the costs of treatment to the patients or their family members beforehand.

In some cases, the costs of treatment go up when the patients’ health conditions deteriorate during the course of his/her stay at the hospital. The family members often tend to shift the patients to government hospitals.

A senior official of a government medical in Kolkata said: “We cannot refuse treatment to anyone, even if a patient is undergoing treatment at a private hospital. Many patients come to this hospital from private ones after undergoing treatment there for some days or even a week,” said the official. Some of them come in critical condition and require care accordingly. Many of the transferred patients require ICU facilities.”

Meanwhile, the state government had recently taken up initiatives to further curb ‘unethical profiteering’ by a section of private hospitals by restricting the costs of treatment under various heads at the outpatient department (OPD), Indoor patient department (IPD) and diagnostic charges as well. A high-power expert committee was also formed in this regard.