The ArogyaSri (NTR Vaidya Seva) Network Hospitals, led by the Andhra Pradesh Speciality Hospitals Associations (ASHA) in AP have stopped services for a week due to non-receipt of dues from the government for treatments provided as part of the implementation of the scheme, and the government has not paid attention to them despite repeated appeals.
However, since the expected response from the government was not received, the specialty hospitals issued a key statement on Monday, suggesting the government to confine this scheme to government hospitals and keep out private hospitals from it. Or if the government bears the salary allowances like the hospitals run by the government, the current packages will be sufficient, they said.
They deplored that this strike had to be done due to the indifference of the governments to the AarogyaSri network hospitals for two decades. They deplored that this has to be done in the context of the fact that the management of the hospitals has become a burden and their survival is becoming questionable, completely beyond politics. They said that in the current situation where poor and middle class patients cannot afford to get minimum medical services, the hospital management should not take up the ArogyaSri scheme.
Private Hospitals made it clear that after taking it, there would be no viability, and that the current packages would not cover the minimum expenses of medicines, equipment, etc. However, they said that the packages should not be revised according to inflation, and the governments have taken up the distribution of ArogyaSri cards to more than 95% of the society and even to the wealthy classes.
Private hospitals deplored that they have been bearing so many thousands of crores of arrears because of their commitment to the health care of the poor. They expressed concern that instead of implementing the ArogyaSri scheme, the government is spending on hospitals and waiting like birds, and in many cases there is not even a 5 percent profit.
It may be recalled that this scheme was introduced by Dr. Rajasekhar Reddy in 2007, and later the rates of the packages in this scheme were revised very little according to inflation. At the same time, the costs of equipment, supplies, and bank EMIs used in procedures have increased exponentially.
The Hospitals stated that costs have increased to the point where even a small hospital cannot be started without an investment of at least Rs 5 crore. For example, the Philips FD10 cath lab cost Rs 2.8 crore in 2017, while its equivalent version is now worth Rs 4.5 crore.
