Diagnostic tests: govt hospitals plan fee hike

Dr Arun Jamkar,Dean of B J Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital is one of the members of the committee of four deans that include Aurangabad,Nagpur and Mumbai government hospitals. Jamkar said they have proposed a marginal increase and these charges will not be levied on patients who come under below poverty line category. For instance,out of 1,200 patients visiting Sassoon,nearly 800 are from BPL families. Their charges will be waived,he said.

At present,government hospitals charge Rs 5-10 for in-patient admission on a daily basis and while charges have been fixed for CT Scan or an MRI in the range of Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 each,there are other investigations and tests that do not have fixed charges,said Dr S Dalvi,Dean of government medical college at Aurangabad.

According to Dr A Niswade,acting Dean of government medical college at Nagpur,a Government Resolution (GR) four years ago had revised the fee structure but it is yet to be implemented as there were verbal directives from the authorities to wait for sometime. The meeting will discuss the fee revision regarding registration of the patient and cost of certain investigations.

Jamkar said several hospitals had procured new equipment at their departments. “There are detection kits used for disease investigation,for instance biochemistry laboratories have kits that are used for detecting diseases. So we need a proper fee structure,” said Jamkar.

At Sassoon,out of a budget of Rs 200 crore,a majority of the funds is spent on salaries of an approximate 3,000 staff. Other costs include that of medicines,syringes and equipment. A series of meetings will be held before the new fee structure is implemented.