“Be humane. Hospitals should not charge for providing two new bed sheets after the death of a person,” is the latest order by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) which has urged hospitals to look at making intensive care units affordable.
The suggestion comes months after a private hospital Fortis Memorial Research Institute (FMRI) in Gurugram was accused of having overcharged a 7-year-old girl’s family ₹16lakh for treatment of dengue. The father of the child said the hospital charged even for the piece of cloth they gave to cover the body of the child after she passed away.
Reasonable subsidy
“Our main objective is to ensure that affordable, available, accessible and accountable quality and safe health care is provided to all in a stress-free environment,” said Dr. K. K Aggarwal, national president, IMA.
On the lines of the Delhi government’s policy, patients should be allowed to bring medicines from outside. Medical profession is not a business and all doctors should provide reasonable subsidy to their patients...,” noted the Association.
The 20-point communication further adds that doctors should look to bring preventable deaths to zero and for that IMA recommends that every preventable death be audited to find what went wrong.
“Cost of emergent medical care in ICU is 200% on the first admission day, 100%on subsequent days and 150% in critical-ill terminal patients. Most patients cannot afford terminal care in tertiary care hospitals and this care therefore should be subsidised by the government. We also need to look at a ‘do not resuscitate’ policy which should be enacted by the government so that once a patient develops brain death and or is in a condition of no recovery the ventilatory care can be stopped,” noted IMA.
Repeated tests
Other suggestions include: at admission weightage should be given to outside tests if done in last 24 hours. These tests need not be repeated, Medical Council of India should permit one-year training fellowship courses in intensive care in hospitals to reduce the cost of staff, the association noted.
