Team Herald
PANJIM: The State government on Monday projected revenue collection of around Rs 2.7 lakh from the Goa Medical College (GMC) and Hospital on the day the decision to charge a nominal fee from non-Goan patients was implemented.
From midnight, the Health Department began to charge a nominal fee from non-Goan patients at GMC as stated earlier.
Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said that the data collected from GMC indicates that 24 percent of the patients admitted in the hospital are not from Goa.
“The total collection for the day, including that of registration fee and other procedures, amounts to Rs 2.7 lakh, which includes projected collection of Rs 2.5 lakh from the patients who are admitted at the GMC,” Rane said.
He added, “19 percent of the patients referred to the Out Patient Departments (OPD) were not from Goa. Besides the regular Goan patients, 55 non-Goan patients were checked at OPDs including 16 from Karnataka, 11 from Maharashtra and rest from other states including Bihar.”
Out of the total 101 admissions, 24 were non-Goans who were admitted for surgical procedures in orthopedics, urology, general surgery, and paediatrics and others.
“The government has given its nod to charge nominal fees from outstation patients and a final meeting was held on Saturday (to give final touches on the implementation). These patients will be charged from midnight. In GMC, we have set up two counters – next to OPD and on the ground floor of the private ward building,” GMC Medical Superintendent Dr S Bandekar told Herald.
Rane had earlier said charging of fees (Phase 1) for non-Goan patients will begin from January 1, 2018. The government has also decided to charge Rs 50 per bed for non-Goan patients.
“State-run facilities, including GMC, will charge patients from outside Goa from January 1, 2018 onwards. This would be 20 per cent of the fee as prescribed in the State’s DDSSY charged by ‘C’ category hospitals. This step has been taken to ensure that locals are given priority in these hospitals as State government is spending crores of rupees to maintain and upkeep these facilities,” Rane had been quoted as saying.
