DEHRADUN: In the first official meeting of representatives of the state’s private

empanelled under the

scheme and authorities implementing the scheme in Uttarakhand, the private hospitals’ representatives expressed helplessness in running the government’s much-hyped healthcare scheme alleging that they are incurring heavy losses due to delayed approvals of emergency cases as well as non-payment of long-pending dues. Also, they claimed that the scope of the scheme had been extended in

to a large percentage of the population — almost 33 lakh beneficiaries — unlike rest of the country where it was covering only below-poverty-line families, and they were unable to bear 50% of the cost of the treatment for so many patients availing the scheme. (the state government pays around 50% of the treatment cost while hospitals have to bear the rest as per the terms of the empanellment).

Thirty-five private hospitals were invited for the workshop but representatives of only 15 hospitals attended. The authorities claimed that among the 80 private hospitals and medical colleges empanelled in the scheme, half were invited on Monday while others will take part in the second day of the workshop on Tuesday.

The discussions between hospitals and Atal Ayushman authorities continued for more than three hours. During the interaction, representatives of the hospitals shared their concerns with Dilip

, chairman of the State Health Agency, which implements the scheme in Uttarakhand on behalf of the National Health Authority (NHA), the apex body responsible for execution of the scheme throughout the country.

Dr Mathew Samuel, deputy medical director at Herbertpur Christian Hospital raised the issue of the low cost of the healthcare packages devised by the government.

“The government rate for almost all the treatments is far lesser than what private hospitals charge. For example, for conducting a Caesarean operation, the government gives us Rs 11000 although we normally charge Rs 20,000. This shortfall in cost has to be borne by us. Hospitals in other states may incur losses in 25% cases due to the number of beneficiaries being low but we carry out all treatments at 50% less cost for more number of patients and hence, end up in more losses,” Dr Samuel said.

Another doctor from a hospital in

Dehradun

who didn’t wish to be named added that “if the situation remains like this, the small hospitals in Uttarakhand will go bankrupt.” “This scheme is just a tactic of the government to cash in on votes but practically, this is not possible to implement. How can they expect us to give treatment to everyone at the rates of a government hospital when we are providing far better treatment and various other facilities?”

The hospitals also alleged that “the government is forcing small hospitals to take up the scheme while big hospitals, where large number of facilities and specialists are present, are not being pressurised to treat patients at lesser cost.”

Chairman of the State Health Agency, Dilip Kotia, told the hospital representatives that he will take up the issue with NHA. He added that they will be calling all the big hospitals who are not participating in the scheme and ask them to join as well.