Unfair to charge patients for medical services in Govt hospitals: DAK
Srinagar: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Tuesday said patients were being charged “hefty sums on tests, procedures and medicines in Kashmir Valley’s government-run hospitals”.
“It is unfair for government hospitals to charge patients as they have an obligation to provide services free of cost,” said DAK President Dr Nisar ul Hassan in a statement.
Dr Nisar said that although the poor, who visit government hospitals with a hope that they will receive free treatment, “but to their disappointment they have to pay huge money to meet their health needs,” he said
The DAK President said it was “painful to see poor patients leaving hospitals without treatment because they cannot afford expenses of tests and medicines”.
“Despite the availability of latest equipment at government hospitals, patients are deprived of treatment because of financial constraints, he added.
Dr Nisar said government hospitals in Kashmir “are no less than private hospitals when it comes to spending money”.
Besides cardiac patients “having to pay Rs 1, 20,000 on pacing, Rs 70,000 on angioplasty and Rs 30,000 on radiofrequency ablation, he said that for coronary angiography and electrophysiological studies, “patients are charged Rs 5500 each”.
Dr Nisar said Contrast enhanced CT scan “costs Rs 3700 to patients and CT angiography Rs 4200”.
MR angiography and MR spectroscopy and contrast enhanced MRI costs 3700 each.
“If a patient wants to correct his refractory error by LASIK (Laser eye surgery), he/she has to pay Rs 10, 000,” he said.
He further added that “for simple tests like CBC, KFT, LFT, Lipid profile, thyroid function, Urine examination, X-ray’s, ECG to hospital stay, patients are charged”.
“While government has announced free drugs in government hospitals, the patients have to pay even for life-saving medicines. If someone gets a heart attack, he/she has to pay Rs 30,000 for tenecteplase, a thrombolytic drug that dissolves clot in clogged arteries and restores blood flow to heart. Poor have to end up on compromise in treatment as they cannot afford this costly drug,” said Dr Nisar.
KV News
