BHUBANESWAR: Odisha government has decided to empanel eight more hospitals having Level-I trauma care facilities to provide free treatment to road accident victims within 48 hours of mishaps.
The hospitals to be empanelled soon included Medicover Hospital at Visakhapatnam and Ramkrishna Care Hospital at Raipur. With this, the accident victims can now get free trauma care treatment at 11 hospitals in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Of the nine hospitals in Odisha, seven are located in Bhubaneswar and one each at Cuttack and Rourkela. The hospitals where people can get trauma treatment free for 48 hours are AMRI Hospitals, SUM Hospital, KIMS Hospital, Hi-Tech Hospital, Kalinga Hospital, Utkal Institute of Medical Science, SUM Ultimate at Bhubaneswar, Ashwini Hospital at Cuttack and JP Hospital at Rourkela.
The State government had launched the Free Treatment for Trauma Fund (FTTF) scheme two years back and made a budgetary provision of Rs 147.2 crore for five years. In September 2019, the government had empanelled three hospitals - two at Bhubaneswar and one at Cuttack and allotted Rs six crore for treatment of trauma victims.
Persons suffering from trauma due to road traffic accidents are in an increasing trend in the State and it has been well understood that the condition of accident victims in the first 48 hours is very critical and lead to death if not managed properly and timely.
A health official said the FTTF scheme has already been running in the State by the Health and Family Welfare Department with the funding support of the Road Safety Fund.
"The government decided to add more hospitals to facilitate prompt treatment and assist in the management of critical trauma patients so that the fatality rate due to road accidents can be reduced," he said.
The Health Department has also issued a set of guidelines for the hospitals to be empanelled. As per the prescribed guidelines, patients suffering from trauma due to road traffic accidents only will be covered under the scheme and no other reason will be entertained.
The trauma patients will be picked up by any private or public ambulance or Good Samaritan and taken to the nearest Trauma Care Center, government or private. The transportation cost will be reimbursed.
If the trauma centre happens to be a private one, the hospitals have been asked to start immediate appropriate treatment (stabilization, emergency medical or surgical management including intensive care) and intimate the Director of Medical Education and Training describing briefly about the nature of injury and the estimate of expenditure that may occur during 48 hours.
The State government has also constituted a five-member committee to look into different issues related to payment of treatment and devise a standard protocol for estimation to ensure that no excess cost of treatment is charged by any hospital and there is no wide variations of cost of treatment by different empanelled hospitals.
When the government trauma care facilities will be well equipped and fully functional, the private hospitals will be de-empanelled. Treatment costs for newborn babies will be separately reimbursed in addition to delivery charges for the mother, who is a trauma victim.
Earlier, Ashwini, AMRI and Apollo Hospitals were empanelled. Later, Apollo Hospitals withdrew citing payment delays. While the trauma treatment cost at JP Hospital will be met from the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) fund, the funds for the rest of the hospitals will be provided from the State budget under FTTF scheme.
Strict guidelines
Hospitals will have to strictly adhere to 48 hours of treatment from first treatment facility. In case a patient is referred from other facility, related documents of previous facility must be obtained for adherence to 48 hours.
For clarity, the patient may be notionally discharged at the end of 48 hours of trauma and readmitted for further continuation of treatment.
In case the treatment was started in one government /private hospital and the patient is transferred to another hospital due to any reason, then the 48 hours of time will be calculated from the time of admission in the first hospital.
If the treatment is started after 48 hours of trauma in a hospital then the patient will not be eligible for free treatment under the FTTF scheme instead the patient can be treated under BSKY scheme.
If the patient is non BSKY, then the expenditure will be borne by the patient or he/she may be shifted to a government hospital for free treatment.
In case the patient under FTTF requires further continuation of treatment beyond 48 hours in the same hospital then it can be continued and the cost will be borne by the patient.
In case of financial constraints, the patient will be transferred to a government hospital where the treatment will be free of cost. The private hospital must assess the condition of the patients before completion of 48 hours and inform the patient well in advance (preferably before 6-8 hours) and make arrangements for such a shift.
In no case, the claim for treatment beyond 48 hours will be reimbursed under FTTF scheme. In no circumstances the hospital should persuade the authority to continue the treatment under FTTF in the hospital beyond 48 hours.
At the end of 48 hours from the time of admission, the private hospital will have to submit the supporting documents for examination and reimbursement of the cost of treatment.