The State Government has withdrawn the Government facilities given to the 40 big private nursing homes and hospitals which have refused treatment of the poor through smart card system and have returned the mater machines. Now, treatment under the Sanjeevni, Baal Hriday and Mukhyamantri Sahayata Kosh schemes would not be held in these hospitals. The State Government has issued orders in this respect to these big hospitals on Friday.
According to sources, for some time, a dispute was going on in between the State health department and doctors of private hospitals over the treatment of BPl and APl card holders under the smart card system. Following the dispute, except some small and medium level private nursing homes and hospitals, all the big private hospital managements have been united against the Government decision.
The sources said, about two dozen doctors of big private hospitals held a meeting in a private hotel here till late Thursday night and it was decided that they would not treat the people under the smart card system, whether they get the government schemes or not. It was also decided that the remaining hospital managements also would return the master machines to the health department by Saturday afternoon.
According to the sources, there were 655 small and big hospitals in the state have the facility for treatment under the smart card system. But after withdrawing the Government facility from the multi and super speciality hospitals, people of the state would have to be dependant on some private and Government hospitals.
President of Indian Medical Association Dr Ajay Sahay said that on Thursday evening, a delegation of the directors of nursing homes under the leadership of Dr Sandeep Dave met the director Health Dr Kamalpreet Singh and while returning the master machines, the delegation refused to treat the patients under the smart card system.
Those big hospitals which have returned the master machine include Ramkrishna Care, Ramkrishna Agrawal-2, Balaji, Samarpan, Arihant, Mediscine, Suyesh, Shree Narayana, Aayogya, Devi laxmi, Mata laxmi, Kalda and Apollo Bhilai Hospital.
He said all the big hospitals in the State were not willing to treat the patients under the National Health Insurance Scheme and Mukhyamantri Health Insurance scheme and Smart Card system. These hospitals were refusing treatment of the poor under these schemes due to the improper rate fixed by the State Government, he added.
‘Govt schemes for small, medium level hospitals’
Senior ENT specialist Dr Rakesh Gupta, who is also associated with the Indian Medical Association, says the Government schemes were for the small and medium level hospitals. It was the reason why the big hospitals were not joining in these schemes. He said the hospitals which have joined the Smart Card Scheme would have many other benefits also. The treatment rate would be revised in 4 to 6 months. They would get relaxation on the implementation of the Nursing Home Act. The Smart Card Scheme would be beneficial for the small and medium level hospitals, he added.