Private hospitals to stop healthcare services for third day

Vijayawada:Private hospitals would continue their suspension of health care services to patients at the out-patient department and through the Employee Health Scheme under NTR Vaidya Seva, for the third consecutive day on Wednesday.

These hospitals are unhappy with the offer from the state health department to release only a part of the outstanding dues --`500 crore towards the end of January, out of the total of `3,000 crore.

The private hospitals stopped providing healthcare services under NTR Vaidya Seva from January 6 all over the state.

The doctors associated with the AP Speciality Hospital Association (ASHA) held talks with health special chief secretary Krishna Babu here on Tuesday.

The health authorities said the previous government left dues of `2,221.60 crore to the NTR Vaidya Seva network hospitals. In the current fiscal, a sum of `1,548 crore had been released.

The Special CS assured the doctors’ delegation that the TD-led NDA government was making efforts to clear the dues to these hospitals.

The doctors also discussed with the health officials the proposed shift to hybrid mode to ensure `25 lakh health insurance to all the denizens of AP. The doctors said that despite the mounting dues of`3,000 crore, the state government is intending to clear the amount in installments of `500 crore per month, but this was not acceptable to the cash-strapped hospitals.

They also said the government’s proposal to handover the implementation of NTR Vaidya Seva to a private insurance company would result in fixation of unviable rates for packages under the scheme.

ASHA president Dr K Vijay Kumar said, “We will continue to stop healthcare services at OPD and under EHS on Wednesday.”