Fix treatment rates at private hospitals, demand activists

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 25

Members of the Bhartiya Sarvahit Parishad, a social organisation, in a letter directed to Punjab CM and Health minister have complained regarding the fleecing of patients by a few private hospitals, and demanded that treatment rates for different facilities and tests at private hospitals must be fixed by the government.

The members have also submitted a memorandum in this regard to Jalandhar DC. Rajan Sharda, president of the organisation said fleecing of patients by private hospitals had been going unabated in the district, and no action was being taken against the erring hospitals.

He said the representatives of the medical association must be called to discuss this serious matter and the government must form some guidelines to save the public from this loot.

The members added that some private hospitals in the city were charging over Rs 10,000 per day as room rent, which is really an atrocity with the middle class or poor patients. “The consultation fee at some hospitals is Rs 500 or more, and then they prescribe medicines which are only available at their own pharmacies and that too on MRP,” they added.

They said only after the government fixes rates of examination, tests, scans, x-ray etc being done at private hospitals, the health facilities in the district will improve, and quality treatment would be affordable for one and all. They appealed to the government to issue orders in this regard, and direct hospitals to display the board of capped charges on their premises, so that this fleecing of patients could be stopped.

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