GOVERNMENT FAILS TO REFER EWS PATIENTS TO PVT HOSPITALS

Delhi High Court constituted Monitoring Committee of which I am a member inspected yesterday (28 April 2012) four hospitals, namely, (i) Batra Hospital & Medical Research Centre having 50 free-beds, (ii) PSRI Hospital having 11 free-beds, (iii) Venu Eye Institute & Research Centre having 15 free-beds and (iv) Primus Super Specialty Hospital having 13 free-beds. It was noted that despite having state of art facilities in all these private hospitals, the occupancy in free-beds category is very low. As many as 30 free-beds in Batra Hospital, 9 free-beds in PRSI Hospital and 11 free-beds in Primus Super Specialty Hospital for EWS patients were found vacant. It is really unfortunate that on one hand, the Government-run Hospitals are overcrowded and on the other hand, the state of art totally free medical facilities for EWS patients available in such and other private hospitals have remained under-utilized. Now the family income limit for EWS category has been increased from Rs.6422/- per month to Rs.7020/- per month. Mere declaration of income by EWS patient or its relative is a sufficient proof and the hospital cannot demand any document. Moreover, the EWS patients from all over the country are eligible to get totally free-treatment in 43 identified private hospitals of Delhi. There are over 800 free-beds available in these 43 identified private hospitals for EWS patients but still more than 80 percent of such beds always remain vacant. The only way to utilize the maximum number of free-beds facility available in these private hospitals is that the Government must refer an adequate number of EWS patients from its own Hospitals to these private Hospitals.