The supply of surgical instruments and equipment, such as stent and pacemaker, to major government hospitals in Kerala for the treatment of heart diseases is likely to be hit in the coming days.
The distributors claim that the payment for these from the government, worth crores of rupees, has been due for months, in some hospitals up to over a year, and they are in dire straits. The situation related to the payment for procedures covered under government-sponsored insurance schemes such as the Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhathi (KASP), Karunya Benevolent Fund, and the Medical Insurance for State Employees and Pensioners, in both government and private hospitals, is more critical. In the case of private hospitals, they can arrange their own funds for the regular supply of the equipment. But with the government defaulting on payments, some of the private hospitals have backed off from insurance schemes such as KASP.
Sources pointed out that almost 60% of the angioplasty surgeries in the State is being performed in government hospitals and government medical college hospitals. If the supply of the equipment in these places is stopped, it would mainly affect poor patients who depend on these institutions.
