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The Kerala High Court has approved the decision of the Kerala government to impose a ceiling on the price charged by private hospitals for Covid treatment and that 50 percent of beds in government and private hospitals, along with medical colleges will be reserved for Covid patients.
Bar & Bench reported that a Bench of Justices Devan Ramachandran and Kauser Edappagth were pleased with this order and directed, “GO dated May 10, 2021 shall be implemented by the government and all stakeholders and any admissions after this order will be governed by the rates. All private hospitals would be bound to offer treatment strictly as per GO and any violation will be strictly dealt with.” It also added that this was a fantastic order and orally observed that it reduced the Court’s burden in this respect to a large extent.
The health and welfare department has issued an order on May 10 with fixed prices for Covid treatment for patients in private hospitals. General wards would now cost Rs. 2,645 per day including registration charges, bed charges, nursing and boarding charges, surgeons, anaesthetists, medical practitioner, consultant charges, blood transfusions, oxygen, medicines, pathology and radiology tests and others.
With the same facilities, an ICU bed will cost Rs. 7,800 and an ICU bed with a ventilator is capped at Rs.13,800. The government order also states that there shall not be exorbitant pricing of Covid related consumables like PPE, pulse oximeter, masks, portable oxygen cylinders and consumables. If this happens, action shall be initiated by the District Collector against the concerned person under relevant provisions and no shops or hospitals shall charge more than MRP (maximum retail price), for these items.
Further, expenses for costly medicines like Remdesivir will be separate while the rate for RT-PCR test would remain at Rs. 500 as fixed by the government earlier.
As reported by Bar & Bench, the government expressed its displeasure at certain prices fixed by certain private hospitals. “We found unconscionable billings, Rs 22,000 for PPE kits. Look at the bills. We saw our humble Kanji is charged at Rs. 1300. Our Humble Kanji. Dolo is charged at Rs. 30-40…Imagine the plight of a citizen who earns 1000 and sees a bill of 2-3 lakhs,” the Bench remarked.
The matter is expected to be heard in 2 weeks.
The government order may be read here:
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