Mamata slashes cost of Covid tests at private hospitals

Kolkata, June 26 (HS) Chief minister Mamata Banerjee here Friday announced a drastic cut in  the charges of Covid 19 tests and medical kits in all private hospitals in West Bengal following largescale complaints from patients about their abnormally high charges despite repeated government requests in this regard.

Announcing this at a video conference at the state secretariat Nabanna this afternoon, the CM said most of the Covid patients found it extremely difficult to clear the bills of private hospitals in the state as in most cases they ran into several lakhs of rupees compared to only about a few thousand in government hospitals .

Under this circumstances the government had decided to reduce the  amount of Covid swab test  for each patient from Rs 4500 to only to 2250 with immediate effect, she said.

Similarly the amount of doctors visit had also been reduced from Rs 5,000 to Rs 1,000 per day in line with similar decisions taken by some other state governments, the CM  said.

Also referring to the abnormal cost of PPE in private hospitals, the CM said steps were being taken to bring them down to a normal level in view of the present situation.