Charges skyrocket due to PPE, oxygen cylinders, other services | Private docs seek subsidies for such patientsHefty Covid bills taking a toll on families

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 5

Local private hospitals and Covid specialty centres are getting an increasing number of cases, where people are unable to pay their hospital bills amid the pandemic. Hospital authorities say there are an increasing number of cases, where families are unable to foot the bills.

Doctors say given the frequency of patients from poor families, the state government should start a subsidy for such patients who are unable to bear the hospital expenses.

It was a team of doctors, including Dr SPS Grover, Dr Vijay Mahajan, Dr Mukesh Joshi among others, who took a call on October 3 to not press for the immediate payment of hospital bills of a family on humanitarian grounds. The bills worth Rs3.10 lakh of two brothers, who lost their mother and savings to the pandemic, yet remains pending. Doctors say it was not the first time.

Dr SPS Grover, consultant, Infectious Disease Centre at the Gulab Devi Hospital, says: “For poor patients, bearing charges of Covid facilities is a tough call. There have been three to four patients, barring this family, to whom we have given discounts. A 60-65-year-old elderly was left unattended to at the centre for days. His family kept calling but at the end of treatment, they had no money. Out of a Rs2.5 lakh bill, they gave Rs1 lakh. We saw the patient didn’t even get attendants, so what to talk about bills? We spent on PPE kits, food and staff charges, which are double due to the risk involved. Covid treatment of critical cases includes oxygen charges too. More and more families turn up, who can’t afford to pay. What are hospitals supposed to do?”

Dr Grover said: “Keeping in view the hefty charges being incurred by those with critical patients from poor families, the hospitals are left helpless. There need to be some subsidy for poor and critical patients, who are shifted to private facilities from government ones.”

The Infectious Disease Centre at the Gulab Devi Hospital is a centre set up by a conglomerate of several private hospitals. Specialists including Dr SPS Grover, Dr Vijay Mahajan, Dr Mukesh Joshi and Dr Mann are providing Covid facilities to citizens on government rates. The centre was started to alleviate pressure on existing private and government facilities amid increase in Covid cases in the city a few months ago.