The state health minister may have declared free treatment for CoVID-19 patients under the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojna (MJPJAY) from April 1 but the private hospitals listed under the scheme do not have isolation facilities to treat such patients.
Under the MJPJAY, patients from poor economic backgrounds get health insurance coverage of Rs1,50,000 at empanelled hospitals. In view of the growing number of cases of CoOVID-19, state health minister Rajesh Tope, in a webcast via Facebook said on March 26, all such patients would be provided free treatment from April 1.
Currently, 42 hospitals in the city are empanelled under the MJPJAY scheme, of which 27 private hospitals, including a few dialysis centres, are authorised service providers.
Hospitals such as HCG, Apex, Sushruta, KJ Somaiya, HJ Doshi, Lifeline Hospitals, among others, have the required CoVID-19 isolation wards but are not on the government's list of providers.
Dr Ravikant Singh, a health activist, said the government should have first checked which hospitals came under the scheme before announcing free treatment from April 1.
“If these hospitals don’t have isolation wards, why did the government declare free treatment from April 1? The health department should have thought about the emergency situation beforehand,” said Dr Singh.
Currently, the state government has approved around 100 isolation beds in 15 private hospitals - Jaslok, HN Reliance, PD Hinduja, Kokilaben, Raheja, Bombay and Lilavati among others, none of which come under the MJPJAY.
This means, people will not get free treatment until the government starts isolation wards in hospitals under the MJPJAY scheme or brings all the private hospitals in the city with CoVID-19 facilities under the scheme too. The state health department is yet to formulate the required policy.
“Under the scheme, we have 1,000 hospitals, so we need to make a policy decision on whether we should treat coronavirus patients in all hospitals or at a limited number of hospitals, bearing in mind the safety of all other patients,” said Sudhakar Shinde, the chief executive officer of MJPJAY.
“But this benefit will only be given to those seeking treatment from our empanelled hospitals. We cannot cover those wanting to be treated at Lilavati or Breach Candy Hospital,” he clarified.
But granting permission to all hospitals to start isolation wards has its own shortcomings in a state where the state government is already grappling with a shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). “Not all hospitals have the required infrastructure to treat CoVID-19 patients, which can put the lives of other uninfected patients at risk. Also, we do not have enough materials to supply PPE, sanitisers or masks to so many hospitals. Thus, we need time to inspect and make a list of the hospitals,” said a health official.
