There has been widespread criticism from the public that corona treatment has become a very expensive affair in private and corporate hospitals. With that, the Telangana CM K Chandra Shekar Rao took the matter seriously.
CM KCR, on announcing the inclusion of covid treatment under Arogyasree scheme, health ministry and private hospitals are now in a heated high level meets to decide upon it.
As per the directives, Health ministry decided to finalise the package based on the covid charges. The fee prescribed by the government for corona treatment in private hospitals in the general ward is Rs. 4,000, Rs. 7,500 in oxygen ward and a fee of 9, 000 for ICU ward. It allowed extra charges for PPE kits, medicine.
But needless to say these were not implemented in practice. According to medical health sources, the package will be finalized on the basis of other inclusions like PPE kits and medicines in a single package with a little higher cost.
Covid-19 treatment is currently available in 203 private and corporate hospitals. Of that, 10,660 beds were allocated to Corona. Of these, only 4,248 beds were filled and 6,412 beds were vacant. A medical health official asserted that hospitals should accept the package as prescribed by the government as the beds are heavily vacant. The government plans to set up a separate monitoring system to prevent misuse of any package.