The state’s clinical establishment regulatory commission has asked private hospitals to offer Covid-19 patients discounts on the maximum retail price (MRP) of medicines and consumables to lessen the burden of bill on patients or their families.

The commission has fixed at least 10 per cent discount on medicines and 20 per cent on consumables.

If hospitals are unable to offer the discount, they should allow a patient’s family to buy medicines and consumables from outside where discounts are offered. The commission has found that medicines and consumables are among the costliest components of a Covid patient’s bill. The discounts will provide patients and their families with some relief, retired judge Ashim Kumar Banerjee, the chairperson of West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission, said on Saturday.

The members of the commission met at New Town on Saturday to discuss the matter, after which the commission issued a series of advisories, including the one on discounts. In another advisory, it asked hospitals to keep their bed charges at March 1 rates.

“We know certain pharmacies and medicine stores offer discounts of up to 20 per cent. But hospitals are charging patients the MRP. So, we have asked hospitals to offer at least 10 per cent discount on medicines and at least 20 per cent discount on consumables on the MRP,” Banerjee said.

“Hospitals should ask their pharmacies to offer the discount. In case the discount cannot be offered, hospitals should give a patient’s family the option of buying medicines and consumables from outside where discounts are available.”

Medicines and consumables together make up between 25 per cent and 40 per cent of a Covid patient’s bill, an official of a private hospital in the city said. “If a patient is administered Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug, the bill is bound to shoot up. A course of six doses of this drug costs Rs 40,000,” the official said.

“We have to give Remdesivir to any patient with moderate symptoms but whose condition starts to worsen. This drug has to be given at that juncture so that the condition does not become critical,” he said.

The consumables include masks, PPEs, syringes and catheter. The contribution of consumables is higher in the bill of a Covid patient compared to patients with other illnesses as doctors have to wear PPEs to treat Covid patients.

The state government has capped PPE rates at Rs 1,000 per patient per day.

Metro had on August 14 reported that insurance companies were refusing to pay the money spent on PPEs, face masks, gloves and hand sanitisers.

The commission has requested hospitals to display their treatment rates for Covid patients in three prominent places on their premises, Banerjee said.

In one of its advisories, the commission allowed doctors to charge an additional Rs 1,000 if they had to examine a Covid patient more than once in a day.

“There was a capping on doctors’ consultation fee at Rs 1,000 per day. It was brought to our notice that in many cases a doctor had to examine a patient several times in a day,” Banerjee said. “We have allowed a doctor to charge another Rs 1,000 for more than one examination in a day. But the Rs 1,000 additional consultation fee will include any number of visits after the first visit.”

COVID ADVISORY

• Private hospitals should offer at least 10 per cent discount on the maximum retail price (MRP) of medicines to Covid-19 patients
• Hospitals should offer at least 20 per cent discount on the MRP of consumables
• If hospitals are unable to offer the discount, they should allow patient’s families to buy medicines and consumables from outside where discounts are offered
• Bed charges should be billed as per March 1, 2020, rates
• Doctors can charge an additional Rs 1,000 as consultation fee if they check on a patient more than once in a day. Earlier, a doctor’s consultation fee had been capped at Rs 1,000 for a patient
• But the Rs 1,000 additional charge has been fixed for any number of subsequent visits after the day’s first visit