Keep 15% beds free, CM tells hosps on free land

Kolkata: Private hospitals in Bengal that have acquired land from the govt at a nominal cost for building the health facility will have to keep 15% of their beds for free treatment of poor patients. This was among the slew of announcements Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari made on Saturday to improve patient care services in the state.

“We have decided that all private hospitals that acquired govt land at Re 1 will have to keep 15% of their beds for poor patients. These free beds could also be used for the treatment of patients diverted from govt hospitals due to bed scarcity. These patients will have to be treated for free,” Adhikari said while inaugurating the statewide HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccination campaign at Bidhannagar Sub-Divisional Hospital.

The state govt has periodically leased land to private health facilities at highly subsidised rates. Sources in the health department said such concession is offered in lieu of benefit to the public in terms of free or subsidised medical care for the general public. While there are terms and conditions like a certain number of free beds along with free outdoor service for poor patients, health officials said there was no systematic way of checking if private hospitals were following such agreement.

“Generally, the agreement with hospitals that received govt land is that they should reserve 10% beds for free treatment of poor patients and about 20% for OPD services,” said a senior health official.

Sources in the health department have started listing private hospitals that acquired govt land at a nominal fee. Some such private hospitals have been asked to produce the lease agreement documents (with the govt).

The CM, along with BJP MP Samik Bhattachrya, also remotely inaugurated 100 additional beds spread across SSKM's three units — Woodburn, Sambhunath Pandit Hospital and Kolkata Police Hospital.

“The Centre has sanctioned Rs 2,103 crore for National Health Mission and the Centre’s share of Rs 976 crore for the rollout of Ayushman Bharat scheme. Ayushman Bharat will cover around 1.4 crore families. People from Bengal, including migrants working in other states, will now be beneficiary of this scheme,” said Adhikari.

Flanked by the officials, including the chief secretary, principal health secretary and two doctor MLAs Sharadwat Mukherjee and Indranil Khan, the CM said PM Jan Aushadhi stores will come across the state where people will get medicine at highly discounted price.

While a few states already completed the HPV vaccination, it was rolled out on Saturday in Bengal from 200-plus sites. The vaccine promises to protect women from cervical cancer.

“The pan-India HPV vaccination was launched on Feb 28 by our prime minister. We are thankful to JP Naddaji for providing us the free vaccine,” said Adhikari.

In Bengal, 7.6 lakh girls who are 14 years of age will get a single jab of the vaccine. Health officials said the target was to cover all these beneficiaries within the next three months.