The Health Ministry will shortly introduce a mechanism to regulate private hospital charges to benefit patients and overcome most of the discrepancies when settling bills. KPMG, an internationally recognised company has completed a survey and given the range of prices to be regulated for private hospitals. We have decided what percentage we should accept from KPMG and we are going to implement it very soon, Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne told the Sunday Observer yesterday.
Regulating private hospital charges would benefit many people. Patients at the time of their being discharged from private hospitals are stunned to see an exorbitant bill with many discrepancies. Therefore, there are many complaints from aggrieved patients. The Minister said during the past three- and- a-half years, the Government in two stages had reduced the prices of 73 essential drugs. Our intention is to reach the target of over 100 by the end of this year. Actually, we were prepared to further regulate private hospitals charges and also reduce the prices of drugs had it not been for the 52-day constitutional crisis, he said.
Dr.Senaratne said earlier there was only one brand of a cancer drug in the country and one injection of that drug was sold at Rs.280,000. When we brought the second drug and started the competition, the very same company brought the price down from Rs.280,000 to Rs.265,000.
At present, another four drugs have been introduced and all together now there are six cancer drugs. Today the sixth drug is only Rs.47,000.