Jharkhand govt yet to pay private hosps for chipping in as Covid centres

Ranchi: Jharkhand government had proactively acquired 12 private hospitals in April, under the guidelines of the Centre, and designated them as Covid centres to fight the pandemic in the state. Four months down the line when the state’s cumulative caseload has crossed the 16,000-mark and the death toll is over 150, the government has not released a single paisa to the hospitals so far.

The government said the process for payment is on but there is a lack of clarity on which department — the disaster management or the health — will clear the bills.

These healthcare centres said they are not in a position to support the operational costs anymore, but they are reluctant to make their financial crunch public. On average, a private hospital has pending bills of around Rs 40 lakh to Rs 50 lakh per month. Meanwhile, overburdened by the bills, the government seemed to have quietly pulled out some of these centres from the fight against the pandemic which may not augur well in the face of rising number of cases. Currently, East Singhbhum has the highest number of active cases at 1,851 on Saturday morning followed by Ranchi at 1,767.

Principal secretary health Dr Nitin Madan Kulkarni said the private hospitals were acquired under the Disaster Management Act and hence their claims for payment have to be handled by the disaster management department. "They are reviewing the matter to release payment," he said.

Though the disaster management department is apparently looking into the matter, there is no clarity yet. During the acquisition of the private hospitals, different district administrations adopted different methods and in most cases, there was no written agreement about the payment structure.

In April, when the pandemic reached the state (the first case was detected in the state on March 31), the health department issued an order to create exclusive hospitals for infected patients and set up two dedicated hospitals at the state level and 14 such hospitals in the districts. Apart from government and private hospitals, those acquired included the ones owned by PSUs. A subsequent notification on April 23 said there were 19 hospitals, including 12 privately owned with 1,521 non-ICU beds, 363 ICU beds and 189 ventilators to cater to the needs of the patients across all 24 districts. In the same notification, patients from Ranchi, Latehar, Gumla and Lohardaga are assigned to one hospital — Paras HEC Hospital, Ranchi — which has only 10 non-ICU and 12 ICU beds.

While the private hospitals abstained from making their financial crisis public because of the Disaster Management Act, the Jharkhand chapter of the Association of Health Care Providers (India) said most of these hospitals are struggling for survival. Jogesh Gambhir, president of the association’s state unit, said, "We have written letters to the state health minister twice on behalf of these private health care providers so that their outstanding bills are cleared but to no avail."

He said, "Paras HEC Hospital had 50 nurses but due to the financial crunch and various other reasons, their number has come down to 15. It would be difficult for the hospital authorities to provide services to the patients with the reduced staff strength, especially when their medical staff on Covid duty are supposed to take a break after a week-long duty."

Ranchi DC Chhavi Ranjan said the bill placed by Paras hospital has been forwarded to the health department. "It is for the health department to settle the dues," he said.

In the tribal-dominated district of Simdega, Shanti Bhavan Hospital located in Biru was the only designated centre to handle Covid patients as the district hospital was in a shambles. "The private hospital worked efficiently in managing the patients, but it hasn’t been paid a single penny in the last four months," Gambhir said. The district has 141 active cases as on Saturday morning.

The same situation prevails in Bokaro where BSL-owned Bokaro General Hospital (BGH) and privately owned Kem Hospital were designated as Covid centres. Kem Hospital director Dr Vikas Pandey said, "We keep 15 beds ready for Covid patients, but the administration has not sent us any infected person.” As of Saturday morning, Bokaro has 239 active cases and BGH has only 90 beds. The district administration has recently set up a 200-bed Covid care centre for asymptomatic patients.