Public to bear brunt of huge hike in hospital charges

Rawalpindi : Public sector healthcare facilities including specialized and tertiary care hospitals and district headquarters hospitals working under the administrative control of Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Department Punjab are going to implement revised rates of user charges amounting to tremendous increase in the existing charges.

All teaching hospitals and DHQ hospitals in the Punjab province including allied hospitals in town namely Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital and DHQ Hospital are implementing revised rates of user charges within a day or two as we have received directives from the provincial health ministry in this regard, said Medical Superintendent at BBH Dr. Nasir Mehmood while talking to ‘The News’ on Tuesday.

Dr. Nasir who has regular charge of the seat of MS at Institute of Urology and additional charge of the seats of MS at HFH and BBH added the public sector hospitals would continue to provide treatment to poor patients free of cost though they have to prove themselves poor.

The SH&ME Department has issued notification regarding revised rates of user charges on February 18 this year notifying the healthcare facilities that the rates would be effective with immediate effect though the revised rates for patients are being implemented in a day or two as said by MS BBH.

Experts believe that the tremendous increase in user charges would put a great burden on patients visiting public sector healthcare facilities for diagnostic and treatment facilities as there are 200 to 600 per cent increase in charges for over 800 health services including diagnostic facilities being offered by the government hospitals across the province.

It is important that majority of patients reaching public sector healthcare facilities belong to low and lower middle class who do not afford healthcare services at private set-ups.

Under the revised rates of user charges, X-Ray at a public sector hospital would cost Rs150 to Rs1,500 while Ultrasound and Doppler would cost from Rs200 to Rs2,000 for general, OPD and private patients.

The patients would have to pay Rs3,500 to Rs9,000 for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan while for CT Scan, the charges would be from Rs2,000 to Rs7,000 depending on types of scan.

Under the revised rates, the charges for various procedures in Nephrology department would be from Rs700 to Rs20,000 in various categories for general and private patients while for procedures in Urology, the charges would be from Rs15,000 to Rs75,000.

For cardiac procedures, patients would have to pay Rs25,200 to Rs45,000 while cardiac surgery at the government hospital would cost from Rs50000 to Rs250,000 (Open Heart Bypass Surgery) apart from daily consultant’s fee that has been fixed at Rs1,000. For echocardiography, patients have to pay Rs3000 to Rs7,000.

Clinical electrophysiology procedures would cost from Rs40,000 to Rs90,000 without medicine after implementation of revised rates of user charges.

In neurosurgery department, charges for different categories of procedures and surgeries have been fixed from Rs25,000 to Rs350,000. In surgery departments, various surgeries divided into five categories would cost Rs3000 to Rs60000 at public sector hospitals across Punjab.

Orthopaedic surgeries would cost from Rs12,000 to Rs70,000 while minor surgeries in orthopaedic departments would cost from Rs,8000 to Rs35,000.

After implementation of revised rates, advanced surgeries in Obstetrics and Gynaecology departments would cost from Rs90,000 to Rs125,000 while major surgeries would cost from Rs50000 to Rs100000. For moderate surgeries, the female patients have to pay Rs30,000 to Rs50,000 while minor surgeries would cost Rs12,000 to Rs25,000. Investigations at Gynae and OBS would cost from Rs1,500 to Rs3,000.