Maharashtra: State may foot private hospital bills for poor

The proposal has been sent to the Medical Education department. On an average, the state records 80,000 deliveries in 16 medical colleges per year. “In rural areas, serious cases are often referred by a sub-district hospital to tertiary level hospital. Since the distance to be covered is huge, a pregnant woman’s life may get endangered,” said Dr Pravin Shingare, director of DMER.

The program may expand to other emergency patients such as road accident and heart attack cases once the service starts catering to pregnant women. The move comes after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) pulled up the Maharashtra government in January this year for taking a poor tribal woman to a private hospital for emergency delivery where the woman was charged Rs 40,000. According to an ambulance doctor, the pregnant woman may have lost her life waiting for a government facility, which prompted him to admit her in private care. The NHRC, however, ordered the state government to pay a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the woman for not taking her consent in writing for the private hospitalisation.

“We realised if a poor patient is made to wait until he or she reaches the closest government hospital, it may be too late. Since they can’t afford private healthcare, there needs to be some form of government support,” said Shingare.

State government estimates suggest that emergency cases constitute at least two per cent of all cases referred in 108 ambulance service. In tribal areas, there is 40 per cent shortage of medical staff, which forces critical cases to seek help from higher centres.

“Currently, 90 per cent women opt for institutional deliveries, which also means we need that much manpower to support them,” said Shingare. According to Dr Padmaja Mavani, professor of obstetrics at KEM Hospital, with so much crowd in government hospitals, pregnant women are also not given enough time to be counselled. According to experts there is a need to inculcate trained midwives in urban and rural areas to assist in childbirth.