Representative image | Photo credit: PTI
Key points
- The panel highlighted the lack of facilities in state health centers
- He said the number of government hospital beds in the country was not adequate
- He also claimed that the public had to suffer trauma and distress due to the absence of a dedicated healthcare system.
New Delhi: A parliamentary panel said on Saturday that private hospitals treating COVID-19 patients charge “exorbitant fees” due to a shortage of beds in government hospitals and the absence of specific guidelines for treatment. The committee headed by Ram Gopal Yadav, a Rajya Sabha MP from the Samajwadi Party, also said in a report that many deaths could have been avoided as long as there was a sustainable pricing model.
Yadav, chairman of the permanent parliamentary health commission, presented the report, entitled “Outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and its management,” on Saturday to Rajya Sabha’s president, M Venkaiah Naidu, criticizing the handling of the pandemic by the Center.
“… The cost of providing health services increased due to the absence of specific guidelines for the treatment of COVID in private hospitals, as a result of which patients were charged exorbitant fees,” the committee noted in the report.
The report also stressed the need for a better partnership between the government and private hospitals in light of the pandemic and the shortage of state healthcare facilities.
“The Committee is of the opinion that reaching a sustainable pricing model for treating COVID patients could have prevented many deaths,” he added.
Panel asks the Center to improve investment in the public health system
Underlining that health spending in the country with a population of 1.3 billion is “abysmally low,” the panel asked the Center to improve its investment in the public health system.
“The committee, therefore, strongly recommends that the government increase its investments in the public health system and make consistent efforts to achieve the National Health Policy goals of spending up to 2.5 percent of GDP in two years as the The time frame established for the year 2025 is far away and public health cannot be compromised until then, “the report indicates.
Highlighting the lack of facilities in state health centers, the committee noted that the number of government hospital beds in the country was not adequate to handle the growing number of COVID and non-COVID patients.
He also claimed that the public had to suffer trauma and distress due to the absence of a dedicated healthcare system, adding that “cases of patients who were turned away from overloaded hospitals due to lack of empty beds became the new normal.” .
