The people in India are a bit scared of the exorbitant charges in private hospitals for the treatment of coronavirus. Some others fear that they would contract a secondary infection in the state run hospitals.
A recent survey conducted by a social media platform – LocalCircles – said that 57 percent expressed concern about exorbitant charges for the treatment at private hospitals. Meanwhile 46 percent expressed fear of contracting a secondary infection in a government hospital
LocalCircles received about 40,000 responses. The questions put forth was related to public perception of government and private hospitals for the treatment of covid 19.
Sixty one per cent of the people opined that the government should fix a price cap in private hospitals. The 46 per cent people said that they feared a secondary infection at state run hospitals because of the crowd and poor adherence to infection prevention control standards.
Another 32 per cent of the people expressed their concern over the lack of adequate medical infrastructure with respect to coronavirus treatment in the country. The survey also points out that 16 per cent of the people complained about long waiting time and inefficiencies.
On the choice of treatment facility, 32 percent of the people noted that they preferred a private hospital and 22 per cent preferred government hospital. Meanwhile, another 32 per cent said they did not prefer any hospital. In red Zones, a majority of the people who participated in the survey raised concern over the lack of facility at private hospitals and the long waiting at government hospitals. This clarifies why 32 per cent did not prefer any of the hospitals.
The people, who said that private hospitals were charging heavily, said that these private hospitals charged for unnecessary tests and were not following any treatment protocol. They said that the private hospitals only had a consolidated bill and no brake up of the treatment cost was given.
With the country itself in economic crisis and the people shattered, most of the people demanded that the government, both the centre as well as state, to cap the treatment charges for coronavirus.
