Govt will foot bill in accident, acid attack cases at pvt hospitals

The Delhi government will bear the expenses of treatment in private hospitals to people injured in road accidents, and victims of burns and acid attacks.

The move is expected to purge the problem of most private hospitals allegedly turning away accident patients to government hospitals over payment issues.

“Our aim is to save as many lives as possible. Precious hours are lost when police commute long distances to take the victims to a government hospital,” Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said.

The government has selected 230 private hospitals, which have more than 20 beds, intensive care units, and are equipped to deal with emergency cases.

“Most often private hospitals either don’t admit road accident victims or simply stabilise the patients before sending them off to a government hospital. They do this because they are unsure about who would pay for the treatment. We will,” Jain said.

The scheme will be available from the next two or three days.

The government will foot the bill for emergency aid, surgeries and two-week hospital stay in economy or similar budget-category beds and wards.

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Delhi lieutenant governor Anil Baijal has rejected the AAP government’s proposal to award ~1 crore as compensation to the family of Ram Kishan Grewal, an ex-serviceman who allegedly committed suicide in November last year over the nonimplementation of the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme.

Officials said the lieutenant governor took the decision on March 6 because the “death did not occur in the line of duty, as mandated under the existing policy”.

The proposal, cleared by the Delhi cabinet in December last year, had also granted the martyr status to 70-year-old Grewal.

While Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal described the move as “anti-army”, Grewal’s son Jaswant said his family was not worried because the AAP government has promised to follow up on its promise.

“When we spoke to the Delhi chief minister today, he said he will fulfil his promise against all odds. He had said there was no need to worry when our entire family met him in Delhi five days ago,” Jaswant added.

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