Sassoon General Hospital, Pune’s busiest, doubles most charges
Hospital states that the decision to revise the rates has been taken by the Health Education Department
Pune: Patients visiting Sassoon General Hospital will now have to shell out more money for various treatments as the rates at the hospital have been revised.
The new rates is applicable from December 20.
According to details received from Sassoon General Hospital, the rates for most services have doubled. Considering that patients visiting the hospital come from the economically weaker sections of the society, these increase in rates would be a big burden for most patients.
For major surgeries Sassoon General Hospital earlier charged Rs 500 which has been increased to Rs 1,100. For angioplasty the hospital charged Rs 3,000 which now has been increased to Rs 4,000. Officials from Sassoon General hospital said that patients visiting the hospital have to firstly get their case papers ready for which the hospital earlier charged Rs 10. Now the charge for the case papers has been increased to Rs 20. The officials added that apart the charges for out patient department (OPD) patients was also Rs 10 which too has been increased to Rs 20. Apart from this, for medical certificate earlier the charges were Rs 75 which have been increased to 100. For haemogram reports the patients were earlier charged Rs 20 while now they would be charged Rs 60.
A statement released by the hospital has stated that the decision to revise the rates of the hospital has been taken by the Health Education Department and is applicable to all medical colleges and hospitals associated with them across the state.
Sources have said that earlier the rates at hospital were revised in 2011.
Dr Ajay Chandanwale, dean of BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital said, "Pune is one of the major cities in western Maharashtra and Sassoon General Hospital is one of the well known hospitals working in this region for the past 137 years. Every year close to 7 lakh OPD patients visit this hospital. The rates at the hospital have not been revised for the past six years. The revenue earned from patients as per the earlier rates was close to Rs 4.5 lakh which is likely to increase to Rs 9 lakh after the new rates would be made applicable."