Patna, (Samajweekly) After several complaints about hospitals charging extra money from patients, the Bihar government has fixed the charges of hospitals for Covid patients in ever district.
The state health department has categorised Patna as A grade district, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Gaya, Purnea as B grade districts and the remaining districts have been classified under C grade.
The hospitals in Patna can charge Rs 10,000 for isolation bed, Rs 15,000 for ICU without ventilator, Rs 18,000 for ICU with ventilator while one PPE kit is available for Rs 2,000.
In B grade districts, the private hospitals can charge Rs 8,000 for isolation bed, Rs 12,000 for ICU without ventilator and Rs 14,400 for ICU with ventilator while in C grade districts, the charges will be Rs 6,000, Rs 9,000 and Rs 10,800 for the respective facilities.
Bihar’s principal secretary of the health department Pratyay Amrit had directed all the district magistrates of 38 districts to implement the same in respective jurisdictions.
Fixing the charges will bring a big relief for the Covid patients as there were several complaints that private hospitals are charging Rs 3-4 lakh per patient from Covid infected patients.
The situation in Bihar is grim as almost all the hospitals in Patna are showing unavailability of beds. There are 110 beds in PMCH, 160 in NMCH, 200 in AIIMS Patna, 30 in Paras hospital, 27 in Big Apollo, 154 beds in Ruban hospital and all of them are currently full.
In several cities, patients are found sitting on corridors of the hospitals. In Arrah Sadar hospital, two patients were alloted one bed. Several hospitals have even complained about unavailability of oxygen cylinders while many of them are giving oxygen in the corridors.
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