Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
On the eve of World Tuberculosis Day, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) kick-started the option of free tuberculosis (TB) treatment in private clinics and hospitals in an attempt to put a cap on the massive drop-out rate of patients who cannot afford the expensive TB drugs. In the e-voucher system, inaugurated by municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte on Monday, patients can now get chest X-rays, drug resistance test and first line TB treatment free of cost.
The BMC, along with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and NGO PATH, has tied up with 1,389 doctors (over 700 Ayush doctors), 92 chemists and 88 hospitals in 15 high-burden TB wards across the city. Whenever a TB patient consults these doctors, they will be given a unique identification code which will be registered in an online system.
“The doctor can register the patient for a diagnostic test or for drugs through a phone call. An automated message with an id will be sent to both, the doctor and the patient. The patient can use the reference id to buy medicines from a particular chemist. The chemist will in turn recover his money from us,” said Rishabh Chopra, senior program officer at PATH.
[related-post]
While free diagnostic and treatment facility is also available at government-run Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), patients not willing to consult with public hospitals can approach private ones for their first line treatment regime.
“Over 70 per cent patients visit private sector for health care. We noticed that several patients leave their long treatment cycle in between which often leads to drug resistant TB,” said Dr Arun Bamne, TB control program adviser at BMC.
The move is expected to have an impact on the rising drug resistant TB population in the city. From 410 cases in 2011, multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB patients surged to 3,522 in 2014 while extensively drug resistant (XDR) cases rose from 33 in 2012 to 296 last year.
The e-voucher scheme functioned as a pilot project for six months during which over 4,000 patients were benefited and an expenditure of Rs 57 lakh was incurred. Currently, patients diagnosed with resistant TB will be referred to RNTCP program unless they are willing to bear the cost themselves in private health-care. In future, however, the BMC plans to expand the scheme to second line treatment for MDR and XDR cases.
Additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh said that currently discussions are under way to convince private practitioners to check patients at a concessional rate of Rs 150 for TB diagnosis.
mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com
Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
