IT News
Imphal, June 5:
Reacting to a news report that appeared in this newspaper, yesterday under the heading “ … Private Hospital charges Rs. 6000/- per patient for PPE suit”- a report that alleged the AOI Babina Specialty Hospital of charging higher price on PPE kits, the authority of the private hospital says that they never charged Rs. 6000 for PPE kits from the patient, but charged only Rs. 1,600 as it is allowed as per the government order dated June 1, 2021.
This newspaper while filing the report missed out the portion of the government order at which it stated that – PPE costs may be charged separately base on actual use and the cost should be sub-allocated among patients based on the rounds taken by the doctors/nurses.
The hospital authority did admit the logic about the alleged unreasonable charge for PPE suits for each patient, when the doctors or nurses attended are attending with the same suit as it can be used for at least 6 hours. However, in reality, it is not practicable while assuring the safety of all the health workers – from doctors to nurses and to attendants and cleaners, the hospital authority clarifies.
“We have 12 doctors, 25 nurses, 12 attendants, and some few workers, who are engaging round the clock”, Dr. Dabali, who runs the hospital said and added that the main priority is to make sure that all the staff are protected and for that PPE suits are mandatory.
As per the hospital Bill for general patients shared by the AOI Babina Specialty Hospital authority – a Covid-19 patient admitted to the hospital is charged Rs. 8,500/- per day for Covid Ward Package per day that includes DMO charges, Disposable Lenin, Biomedical Charges, Housekeeping Charges, Clinical Monitoring and Supervision Charges, Ward material, PPE Kit, and disinfection charges. Room rent for a day is mentioned as Rs. 3000/-. The bill amount also mentioned that no Nurses and Hospital utility and also Medical facilities are not charged from the patient. However, the hospital charged for medical testing, drugs etc, as allowed by the order of the State Health Department dated June 1, 2021.
