Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, June 11: While Government hospitals are duty bound to provide free treatment to patients, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Tuesday said patients are charged hefty amount on tests, procedures, and medicines in various Government-run hospitals in Kashmir.
A spokesperson of the Association said it was unfair for government-run hospitals to charge patients as they have an obligation to provide services free of cost, “It is the poor who visit Government hospitals with the hope that they will receive free treatment, but to their disappointment, they have to pay huge money to meet their health needs,” he said.
He said that it is painful to see poor patients leaving hospitals without treatment because they cannot afford expenses of tests and medicines, “Despite the availability of the latest equipment at government hospitals, patients are deprived of treatment because of financial constraints,” he said, adding that all these advances are meaningless if patients cannot avail them.
Spokesman further said that Government hospitals in Kashmir are no less than private hospitals when it comes to spending money, “Cardiac patients have to pay 1, 20,000 rupees on pacing, 70,000 on angioplasty and Rs 30,000 on radiofrequency ablation. For coronary angiography and electrophysiological studies patients are charged Rs 5500 each,” he said.
He said Contrast-enhanced CT scan costs Rs 3700 to patients and CT angiography Rs 4200. Besides, MR angiography and MR spectroscopy and contrast-enhanced MRI cost Rs 3700 each.”If a patient wants to correct his refractory error by LASIK (Laser eye surgery), he/she has to pay 10, 000,” he said. He added: “From simple tests like CBC, KFT, LFT, Lipid profile, thyroid function, Urine examination, X-ray’s, ECG to a hospital stay, patients are charged.”
He further added that while the government has announced free drugs in Government hospitals, the patients have to pay even for life-saving medicines, “If someone gets a heart attack, he/she has to pay Rs 30,000 for tenecteplase, a thrombolytic drug that dissolves a clot in clogged arteries and restores blood flow to the heart. Poor have to end up on compromise in treatment as they cannot afford this costly drug,” he said.
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