Delhiites, breathe easy! Medicine, tests to cost less soon
Last year, Fortis hospital in Gurgaon charged Jayant Singh Rs. 16 lakh for treating his daughter for two weeks, who eventually died of dengue. The case created a furore on social media prompting Union Health Minister J P Nadda to order a probe. Taking cue from this, Delhi government has now decided to fix up a price slab for medicines and diagnostic test kits.
'Not more than 40% profit margin for medicines'
A nine-member committee has been formed under Dr Kirti Bhushan, Delhi government's director general of health services (DGHS), in which health experts and doctors from various organizations have given their inputs. The committee might set not more than 40% as profit margin for medicines and 15% for diagnostic kits used in tests. A list of 450 essential medicines has also been compiled.
Diagnostic labs to keep 15% as profit cap
Dr Bhushan further said that an average of 15% has been fixed as profit cap for diagnostic tests after they have "considered the rates at a few quality path laboratories such as Dr Lal Path Labs, SRL Diagnostics, etc, and considered their prices of medical investigations." The committee has already sent the report to CM Arvind Kejriwal and health minister Satyendar Jain.
'Give time to kin for payment; don't hold back body'
The report also considered two other problems the patients' families face. It will now become mandatory for a hospital to depute a doctor, in absence of the main doctor/surgeon, to continue treatment. Also, in some cases, bodies are not released due to non-payment. "They can give some time to the family member to make the full payment but cannot hold the body," Bhushan said.
