PRINCE KUMAR
Ranchi, March 14: The Ranchi Municipal Hospital was built with a motive to provide health services to common people at a cheap rate. But 8 years down the line, it has failed to prove beneficial for the public.
Ranchi Municipal Commissioner Mukesh Kumar said that the agreement with Devkamal hospital was terminated as it did not serve the purpose and a committee was formed to look into the matter also no revenue share was provided to the RMC and people had to suffer.
“In 2021, on the demand of the Deputy Commissioner, the hospital was given to the district administration for accommodating the Covid patients in the hospital which was handed over to Promise health care for running the isolation ward,” Kumar said.
“We are now drafting fresh policies for the hospital and also a letter has been sent to the district administration to hand over back the hospital to the RMC as the cases of covid-19 have declined,” Kumar added.
“A tender will be floated for finding the medical institute to run the hospital in PPP mode. At the same time, steps will also be taken to upgrade the hospital. A suitable hospital will be found to run the hospital so that the patients coming here get treated at an affordable cost. Specialist doctors will be present for better treatment and necessary medicines will be made available to the patients at affordable rates. Corporation employees will get better treatment facilities at a concessional rate. They will not need to wander to the private hospital,” Kumar further said.
On the other hand, Promise healthcare administrator Varsha said that at present no Covid patient is admitted to the Municipal hospital which was made to accommodate 40 Covid patients. “The municipal hospital was handed over to us in April 2021 to prepare an isolation ward for Covid-19 patients.”
In the year 2014, the corporation had signed an agreement with Devkamal Hospital to run the corporation’s hospital located at Ratu Road intersection for 10 years. But the agreement was terminated in the year 2020 as Devkamal Hospital was violating the terms of the RMC on which the municipal hospital was handed over to its management.
Before terminating the agreement, the Ranchi Municipal Corporation had also given a show-cause notice to Devkamal Hospital on September 1, 2020, to which the management replied on September 21. But the corporation was not satisfied with the reply of the hospital. Neither the tax nor any facilities were received.
The Municipal Corporation had given it to Devkamal Hospital on PPP mode for hospital operation. Along with this, there was talk of giving 10 to 20 percent concession in treatment to the officers and employees of the Municipal Corporation. 20 percent of the hospital beds were to be reserved for the corporation workers.
Along with this, they had to get emergency facilities and treatment free of cost. Similarly, the hospital had to pay 10 percent of the earnings to the corporation as a license fee. But the Municipal Corporation did not get revenue of even one rupee from that hospital, nor did the officials and employees of the Municipal Corporation get the facility of treatment there.
Not only this, but patients also had to pay consultancy fees like in private hospitals. Because of this, people had stopped going there for treatment. When the Municipal Corporation started the hospital, patients were charged Rs 5 for registration. At the same time, medicines were also provided to them free of cost.
But after handing it over to the private hands, the doctors’ fee ranged from Rs.200-250. In such a situation, people thought it better to visit some other hospital than to consult the doctors there.
