By IANS,
New Delhi: Doctor’s consultation fee Rs. 200, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) charge Rs.5,000 and a private bed for Rs. 3,000 per night! No it’s not a private hospital but Delhi government’s new super specialty hospital that opened Thursday to treat liver and other allied ailments.
“Yes, it is more than AIIMS. But don’t think we are charging too much as the price here is 60 percent of what private hospitals are charging in the city,” Delhi Health Minister Kiran Walia told IANS after the inauguration of the hospital in Vasant Kunj.
The Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) opened to public seven years after its foundation stone was laid. The 155-bed hospital, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit claims, is one of its kind in Asia and will soon be developed on the lines of AIIMS.
“This is a unique hospital in Asia. We will soon start a medical college here too,” Diskhit added.
Though no one spoke openly about the high charges, nearly 10 times more than those charged at the AIIMS, a hospital official said: “It’s like a corporate hospital. The fee is high and the quality of treatment is equally good.”
Take a look at the tariff chart – an economy ward charges are Rs.500 per night, a semi-private bed will cost Rs. 1,800 and private single bed Rs.3,000. And if the patient is admitted to the ICU with ventilator support, the bill is Rs.5,000 a day. A bed in VIP suite is Rs.7,000 a night.
Besides, all clinical tests and all medicines will be charged. For instance, blood tests will cost between Rs.60 to Rs. 600 and an MRI scan Rs.4,500.
The patients start forking out at the registration counter itself. It is Rs.10 at the AIIMS, but the ILBS is charging 10 times that amount.
“Don’t think negative, what is Rs. 100 today?” Walia said as the chief minister nodded in agreement.
“Look at the quality of service and the state-of-the-art equipment used at the hospital,” Dikshit said.
Like many corporate hospitals, the ILBS also promises 30 beds for below poverty line (BPL) families free of cost. However, not a single in-patient at the hospital on Thursday was from the BPL family.