Barely seven months after coming to power, the Kejriwal government is facing its first major test in the capital. Already in the line of fire for failing to contain Delhi's worst dengue outbreak in five years – leading to 11 deaths and more than 1,900 suspected cases -- the Delhi government on Wednesday announced that private hospitals cannot charge more than Rs50 for platelet and Rs600 for dengue tests.
If implemented, the move will be a crackdown on private hospitals, who allegedly charge exorbitant amounts from dengue-suspected patients to carry out the tests.
"No hospital can charge more than Rs50 for the platelet count test and Rs600 for the Dengue antibody and NS1 antigen test," Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain said, adding that the tests are free of cost in all Delhi government hospitals.
Reiterating the Delhi government stand, Jain warned of 'strict action' against private hospitals in instances of refusal to admit serious patients, the government also issued a 'blanket order' giving its hospitals powers to employ more doctors and nursing staff while directing private hospitals to increase bed capacity to deal with rising Dengue cases.
"Private hospitals have been asked to increase capacity by 10 to 20%. If the hospitals are not equipped to treat the patients, they should try to stabilise them before shifting them to another hospital,"said Jain.
Currently, the total bed capacity of city hospitals is around 50,000 which include 10,000 beds in Delhi Government-run hospitals and 20,000 in private hospitals. The hospitals run by municipal corporations and Centre have a capacity of 10,000 beds each.
The Aam-Aadmi party in its maiden budget this year has allocated Rs 4,787 crore for health and had announced 100 new hospitals to be added under Private Public Partnership (PPP) model.
Jain also said the Union government has also praised the Delhi government's work in tackling the Dengue crisis.
In the last week two children died of the disease after being turned away from top hospitals. The Delhi government is also mulling to bring a law in a special assembly session to ensure that the government is able to take over private hospitals during emergencies.
