Private Hospitals In AP Threaten To Intensify Stir, Call For Phased Release Of ₹650 Crore In Dues

The private hospitals associated with ASHA say the government owed them ₹2,700 crore for the healthcare services they provided to patients under the NTR Vaidya Seva scheme for the last one year. They sought immediate clearance of bills worth ₹650 crore and a guarantee to a phased release of the rest of the dues to them.

The hospitals claimed that nearly 6,000 to 8,000 cases get registered a day to avail healthcare under NTR Vaidya Seva scheme across the state. “As we halted the scheme, the number of cases getting registered rose to 2,000 a day at the government hospitals and medical colleges,” they said.

The hospitals maintain that they are providing free services to patients in life-threatening conditions, and after stabilizing their condition, they are referred to government hospitals and medical colleges.

They claimed that private medical colleges also extended their support to the ASHA and they would intensify their pressure on the government to release their dues.

The hospitals rubbished the government’s claim that their protest had no impact on healthcare services. “Some 34,676 cases were registered from October 6 to 9, but there were only 18,040 cases from October 10 to October 13 as NTR Vaidya Seva services were stopped from October 10,” they said.

On the other hand, the PHC doctors who have been staging a relay hunger strike in the city for the last 11 days with a demand for a 20 per cent in-service quota for them to pursue PG in all clinical subjects for three years, are restive. They have announced a boycott of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Kurnool on October 16.

They said public health services were getting badly hit due to their stir and boycott of PHCs and appealed to the government to resolve their issues immediately so that they could resume work.