29 March,2011 08:01 AM IST | | Astha Saxena
Institute likely to introduce a 'package system' where items like medicines and surgical consumables used during treatment will be billed to patients
Next time you go to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for treatment, be ready to pay more as the Institute will now charge you even for the medicines and instruments used during your treatment which was earlier free of cost.
The Institute is likely to introduce a 'package system' in its private wards. This new scheme has been approved by the Standing Finance Committee and Governing Body of AIIMS, and is likely to be extended to the general wards later.
Sources say that this scheme is actually repackaging of the earlier scheme where the Institute had decided to introduce 'user charges' for patients but it had been shot down by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
"The introduction of package system in private wards, which have more than 160 beds, has been approved in principle by the governing body. We have asked different departments to come up with a list of procedures and consumable items required for the same based on which the rates will be decided," said Vineet Chaudhary, deputy director (administration), AIIMS.
Giving details about the new scheme, a senior official at the Institute said, "From medicines to surgical consumables, everything required for the patient's treatment will be procured by the hospital and at the time of discharge, the patient will get a computerised bill detailing the costs of all these things which he/she has to pay."
According to the Institute, the move is to make the treatment hassle-free for the patients as they will not have to go through the rigmarole of paying for different services and products separately. But several doctors feel that with this system in place, the patients will ultimately have to pay more for the services. "The package system will also include doctor's fee. It is a government funded hospital, how can you charge a doctor's fee from the patient? These things are done in private hospitals and not the government ones," said a doctor from the institute on condition of anonymity.
A letter was issued to all the heads of the departments of the Institute inviting them for a meeting on March 29 to discuss the introduction of package system for various surgical/ diagnostic/ therapeutic procedures for the private wards.u00a0 A copy of the letter is with MiD DAY.
On whether the system will be extended to the general wards too, D K Sharma, Medical Superintendent, AIIMS said, "It will only pertain to private wards and not the general wards. Here whatever money will come, it will go directly to the institute account."
