PMC will bear 50% medical costs of H1N1 patients from below poverty line families.
The health officials of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Wednesday met representatives of various private hospitals to request them to provide concessions to H1N1 patients requiring intensive care unit (ICU) facilities from below poverty line (BPL) families.
Dr ST Pardeshi said that private hospitals have been asked to charge only 50% of the total bill amount from BPL patients, those having a yellow ration card or with a family income below Rs1 lakh annually or those residing in slum areas.
“Fifty per cent of the bill or a maximum of Rs1 lakh would be paid by the corporation under urban poor health schemes,” said Pardeshi.
The move has come after the civic body came under sharp criticism for not having ICU beds for critically ill H1N1 patients. While ICUs at Sassoon General Hospital that were in use at the peak of pandemic two years ago are under renovation, both civic-run hospitals, Kamala Nehru and Naidu Hospital, do not have ICU facilities to offer as they don’t have a central oxygenated supply system.
Meanwhile, throat swab samples of a 39-year-old man who died at Sahyadri Hospital on March 19 have tested positive for H1N1. The resident of Sadashiv Peth, who died of viral pneumonia, had swine-flu like symptoms since March 16. He was admitted to the hospital in critical condition on March 19 and died the same day taking the total death toll of H1N1-related deaths to six so far.
Besides, 20 people tested positive for H1N1, taking the total number of positive cases since March 1 to 94. Two more patients, one each at Ruby Hall Clinic and Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital were put on ventilator support taking the total number of critical patients to seven so far.
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