LUDHIANA : Treatment is a prepaid service at DMCH

LUDHIANA: A circular issued by Dayanand Medical College and Hospital on June 22 puts a question mark over it's identity as a charitable institute. The circular asks the treating consultant and unit in-charge to ensure that the patient has made an advance payment.

The patient or attendant has to deposit Rs 20,000 for ICU bed, Rs 30,000 for ventilator and Rs 50,000 for both beforehand. No patient can be shifted to ICU waiting list without it. Emergency supervisor is entrusted the responsibility for recovery of payment and maintenance of ICU waiting list.

The circular also says, "Resident doctors are required to follow the orders and if they put any patient on ventilator without advance payment then they will be responsible for the whole hospital bill, if not paid by the patient or his family (sic)."

Communist Party of India (CPI) raised objections over the circular on Saturday evening. Kartar Singh Bowani, secretary, CPI (Ludhiana), says the patients who come to the emergency do not carry much amount at that time.

"Moreover, average income of the workers is between Rs 4,000 and Rs 6,000 per month. How can they afford such expensive treatment? Forefathers of our country had the vision of a social welfare state where every citizen should get health facility. But with the entry of corporate sector, healthcare has become commercialised and completely out of reach of even the middle-class leave aside the poor," he says.

Taking action, Punjab Medical Council asked the medical superintendent to explain the circular and the motive behind it. The medical superintendent has been called for an ethical committee meeting on August 12. "This is an unappreciable gesture by the hospital," says Dr G S Grewal, president of the Punjab Medical Council.

'It's not for trauma patients':

Dr Sandeep Sharma, medical superintendent of DMCH, says, "The circular is not for the trauma patients. If they need, we will shift them immediately to ICU. It is for those who shift to ICU on will."