MAITRI PORECHA Mumbai
While KEM hospital will claim credit for the corrective surgery on the fourlegged baby, it will not mention that the babys father will be left in debt.
Although KEM is a municipal hospital, poor people s
uch as Ravindra Manwar, the father of the freak baby, end up paying a huge sum for the battery of tests and medicines. Manwar ( 28), a daily wage labourer, from the remote village of Parwa in Washim district had come to the city with high hopes. But on Wednesday, he was seen running from pillar to post in the confusing maze of KEM hospitals corridors trying to arrange for funds to pay for the numerous tests to be conducted on the baby.
FPJ had first reported on April 24 that the baby is suffering from caudal duplication syndrome, which has led him to develop an extra pair of feet, an extra set of genitals and two urinary tracts. Since ten days, the baby has had to undergo a slew of costly medical examinations.
” Here we have to pay for most of the tests.
The CT scans cost Rs 1200, the barium test, x- rays and blood tests cost another Rs 800. The treatment is very expensive for a poor person like me,” lamented Manwar, who earns not more than Rs 100 a day. While Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation ( BMC) circulars focus on prompt collection of user fees ( entailing charges for registration and medical tests) from patients, the process of exempting the poor from paying hospital bills is vague and arbitrary, health activists allege.
” Of the 60,000 to 80,000 inpatients that any leading BMC hospital sees annually, only 10 to12 per are referred to the poor box charity fund. Most of the cases are rejected or only a miniscule part of amount is reimbursed which depends on the benevolence of the duty officer,” said Oommen Kurian, researcher at Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes.
Doctors feel that a of 100% subsidy for patients is not viable. ” In the city compared to private hospitals these charges are fair and suitable,” said a resident doctor at KEM hospital.
” After paying up for all expenses the patients family can approach us for a waiver of funds. Not more than 20 per cent of the charges get reimbursed through the hospitals poor box charity fund ( PBCF). It depends on the discretion of the hospital authorities,” said a social worker at KEM hospital requesting anonymity.
Here we have to pay for most of the tests. The CT scans cost Rs 1200, the barium test, x- rays and blood tests cost another Rs 800. The treatment is very expensive for a poor person like me”
