Price cap will hit quality of treatment, say private hospitals

The city’s corporate hospitals in the city say they will have no choice but to have staff take on additional work .

The capping of prices for hospital beds for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients in private hospitals will compromise quality of care, said representatives of doctors and hospitals.,,

A health worker in an enclosed booth holding a coronavirus Ag antigen test kit, in New Ashok Nagar, New Delhi. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

After complaints of overcharging against private hospitals, home minister, Amit Shah, on Sunday, constituted a committee under member Niti Aayog, Dr VK Paul, to fix rates charged by private hospitals in Delhi for isolation beds, Intensive Care Units (ICUs) without ventilator support and ICUs with ventilator support.

The committee has recommended ₹8000-10,000, 13,000-15,000 and 15,000-18,000 as the price slabs for each category, including personal protection equipment (PPE), compared to the current charges of ₹24,000-25,000, ₹34,000-43,000 and ₹44,000-54,000 (excluding PPE) .

The earlier prices may have been higher, admitted a doctor, but these are way too low.

“If earlier, prices were on the higher end, then the price bracket that has been decided is on the lowest end. Between 15,000 and 18,000 per day for a ventilator bed with personal protection equipment and other consumables is simply not sustainable for any hospital managing Covid-19 patients. This amount is too low. Even for smaller hospitals managing a Covid patient at 8,000-10,000 is not feasible. The prices need to be revised with more thought put behind it. I would say around Rs 30,000 for a ventilator bed in ICU, and Rs 25,000 for a bed without ventilator per day is still doable,” said Dr Ashwani Goyal, former president, Delhi Medical Association (DMA).

The city’s corporate hospitals in the city say they will have no choice but to have staff take on additional work .

“Since we are bound to comply, we will have to look at ways to cut overall expenses, which would obviously mean cutting down on our extra shifts and to making our existing staff work longer hours. One nurse will probably be taking care of say eight patients rather than five which is the practice currently,” said a senior administrator at a private hospital who asked not to be named.

Another hospital representative added: “In most Covid-19 hospitals, the usual staff shift is for six hours, not the usual eight hours. This means we need to deploy 25% more nurses and doctors to take care of Covid-19 patients. Nurses and trained medical workers are in short supply and we are doing our best to manage with the resources we have. All of this costs money.” This person too asked not to be named.

Dr Goyal added that since the staff managing Covid-19 patients has to be quarantined, the hospital also bears the cost of their stay in hotels. “The hospitals are supporting expenses of sending their staff under quarantine, including the cost of hotels, as you cannot send these people home and risk their families getting infected.”