Overcharging hospitals to face the heat: C Vijayabaskar

Bed facility at Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai has been increased to 1,461, says health minister Vijayabaskar
Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar. (File | P Jawahar, EPS)
Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar. (File | P Jawahar, EPS)

MADURAI/TIRUNELVELI: Minister for Health and Family Welfare C Vijayabaskar said that appropriate action would be taken against private hospitals that overcharge Covid-19 patients. The minister said this while replying to queries from media persons on complaints of private hospitals charging Rs 5-6 lakh to treat COVID-19 patients.

“If any hospital is found to be collecting an amount beyond the rate fixed by the government, appropriate action would be taken,” he said. Vijayabaskar said that the bed facility at Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai has been increased to 1,461 and that the availability of life saving drugs like Remdesivir, Tocilizumab and Enoxaparin to handle patients with cytokine storm and happy hypoxia have been ensured in all government hospitals across the State.

The minister further said that all the four COVID-19 patients who underwent plasma therapy at GRH and 24 out of 26 patients who underwent in Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai have recovered. “A plasma bank established at a cost of `2 crore will be inaugurated at RGGGH on Monday,” he said. He said that Rs 15 lakh each has been allotted to all districts to strengthen infrastructure for conducting tests at government laboratories and that automated RNA extractors have been ordered. Earlier, the minister chaired a review meeting with staff of health department staff and GRH at Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce auditorium and reviewed the measures taken so far to tackle Covid-19 spread in Madurai.

In Thoothukudi, the minister appealed to the people, who have recovered from Covid-19, to come forward and donate plasma for the treatment. A plasma treatment clinic would be launched in Chennai on Monday, he informed. The health minister inspected the facilities at the Thoothukudi Medical College Hospital on Saturday. Vijayabaskar told reporters that the State government has expedited the measures to prevent the spread of infection and that camps were being established for isolating patients suffering from fever. In the district, over 1,405 people, including 52 pregnant women, have recovered from Covid. Over 1,094 beds, including 240 beds facilitated with ventilation, are kept ready at five hospitals, he said. Vijayabaskar added that the government provides both Siddha and allopathy treatments to the patients. As far as the plasma therapy is concerned, it is being provided at 44 centres in the country and 24 out of 26 patients have recovered at Chennai’s Rajiv Gandhi Medical College hospital, he informed.

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