As part of the government’s plan to bring in private medical colleges for COVID-19 management in the Union Territory, the Health Department has fixed the cost of treatment and testing in facilities outside public health sector.
The department has fixed the fee for non-critical care COVID-19 treatment at ₹3,250 per day.
And for patients needing critical care, the private medical colleges could charge ₹5,480 per day for ICU without ventilator or NIV, ₹5,980 per day for ICU with NIV, ₹9,580 per day for ICU with ventilator, ₹6,280 per day for sepsis without ventilator, ₹10,380 for sepsis with ventilator and septic shock/MODS with ventilator per day.
These charges are inclusive of isolation ward, administrative charges, consultation, drugs and investigation, nutritious diet and disinfection cost per person
The department has also fixed ₹2,400 per test in the private institutions.
District Collector and Secretary Health T. Arun told The Hindu that the rates were not applicable to patients referred by the government and they would be given treatment free of cost.
“Our effort is to make private medical colleges partners in controlling the spread of virus but at the same time give patients affordable treatment,” he said.
By next month, the government planned to scale up testing to 3,500 per day from the current 1,000, he added.
Orders would soon be placed for procuring three Truenat machine used for diagnosis of pulmonary disorders, one Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain reaction (RT-PCR) and CBNAAT machine (used to detect tuberculosis). The department would also also getting additional five Truenat machines from the Central government in a day, Mr Arun said.
Two private medical colleges PIMS and Mahatma Gandhi Medical Colleges had already started testing for COVID- 19. Remaining five colleges had procured RT-PCR and other necessary equipment and awaiting clearance from National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories and Indian Council of Medical Research to start testing, the Secretary said.
The department would be getting 30,000 rapid test kits by next week. “We have scaled up testing from 200 per day in the initial stages to 1,000 per day now. Our aim is to conduct 3,500 test per day. Though the Centre has fixed 140 test per 10 lakh population, we wanted to be aggressive on testing. Testing and isolation are the only solution to contain the spread of virus,” he said.
