NEW DELHI, FEB 28: Despite having received government subsidies, many of Delhi's private and charitable hospitals have failed to meet their obligations towards poor patients, a report has said.The report - Critical Condition - says increasing dominance of the private sector in healthcare and the trend to privatise charitable hospitals have made health services inaccessible to the poor.In most private hospitals, bed charges are exorbitant: For deluxe beds in a south Delhi hospital, the charge per day is about Rs 3,000 while in elite hospitals it can go up to Rs 15,000 a day. These are the findings of the report, based on a survey of wages, working conditions and terms of employment of Class IV workers in eight of Delhi's larger private hospitals - Apollo, Batra, Mool Chand, Gangaram, Tirathram, Sunderlal Jain, B L Kapur and Jessa Ram - released recently by the Workers' Solidarity.``Though these hospitals and institutes have received public benefits in the form of subsidised land, tax deductions, import exemptions and donations, they have failed in providing a stipulated free or cheap health services,'' a spokesperson of the Workers' Solidarity said. They have violated the basis of the subsidy arrangement, he added.The report alleges that Apollo Hospital, in which the government has a 26-per cent stake, keeps 200 beds meant for the poor, mostly vacant, to avoid spending money.Ironically, the hospital has a long-term lease on 15 acres from DDA at the rate of just Rs 1 a month, the Workers' Solidarity spokesman said. However, Apollo Hospital CEO Brigadier Chandershukla, said the hospital has a special block for poor patients, who are referred by the government hospitals.The report cites the general OPD in Moolchand Hospital that was given nine acres of prime land on the Ring Road and a grant of Rs 3.5 lakh after Partition as being wilfully allowed to deteriorate.The charge in a paid OPD is as high as Rs 250 per visit. It adds that the authorities have been privatised parts of hospitals by contracting out departments like X-ray and ECG to private firms.
