Bed occupancy under the economically weaker section (EWS) quota across identified private hospitals in the city has reduced from 70 per cent to 50 per cent, according to a member of the Delhi High Court-constituted EWS Patients Monitoring Committee.
Alarmed at the fall, advocate Ashok Aggarwal has written to Delhi’s Principal Secretary (Health) S.C.L. Das to look into the matter.
In his letter, Mr. Aggarwal noted: “During the past few weeks, it has been noticed that the percentage of EWS free-bed occupancy in the 44 identified private hospitals has gone down from 70 per cent to 50 per cent. From mid-September onwards the bed occupancy started going down almost every day and currently it stands at 52 per cent.”
He stated that one of the major reasons for such an unfortunate situation could be because government hospitals are not referring many poor patients to these private hospitals even though they are facing overcrowding. Mr. Aggarwal added that another reason was that “EWS patients do not assert their rights and there is acute lack of awareness among them”.
Holding the government accountable for the falling awareness levels, the advocate said: “Government has stopped advertising free-bed facilities in private hospitals through TV channels and FMs, which might also have contributed to this situation. Barring a few hospitals, all are reluctant to provide free treatment to EWS patients.”
