Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Nov 22: The Jammu and Kashmir government is all set to fix and notify rates of the tests being conducted at the Private Diagnostic Centres in the Union Territory, the Minister for Health and Medical Education, Sakeena Masood (Itoo) said on Saturday.
Itoo said that the government has already fixed rates of few diagnostic tests in government run hospitals and the rates for tests in private diagnostic centres will be notified soon.
“We are going to fix and notify rates of all tests for private diagnostic centres so that patients will know about it and nobody can charge them more,” she said.
She added that usually it is being witnessed that some private diagnostic centres have been charging at their will for different tests and patients don’t have any other option than to pay it.
The Minister further added that nobody will be allowed to loot poor patients in the name of tests.
Notably on Friday, the government announced the official rates for PET scans and CBCT machine charges for all government run hospitals and health institutions of the Health and Medical Education department except SKIMS.
The rates per scan/test for PET Scan Whole Body will be Rs. 10,000, for PET scan Cardiac metabolism is Rs. 4000, for PET guided Biopsy is Rs. 1200, for PET scan review from outside is Rs. 600 and for CBCT machine charges is Rs. 1200.
This significant step has been taken by the government with an aim to provide more affordable diagnostic services to patients, particularly those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. (KNO)
