PESHAWAR, Sept 3: Patients are being charged high at the public sector hospitals in the provincial metropolis under the head of user charges, sources said on Wednesday.

They said that the user charges had recently been raised from Rs100 to Rs300 at the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC). Likewise the ECG charges had been increased by 50 per cent at the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH).

Million of rupees are being annually collected from the patients in the garb of user charges. Forty per cent of the money goes to the consultant and employees whereas the remaining 60 per cent goes to the national kitty, with radiology and pathology departments taking the lead.

Fee for a single case of an MRI scan is Rs4,000, 40 per cent of which — Rs1,500 — goes to the pocket of the radiologist, despite the fact that the employee is paid by the government and the machine is purchased with the public money.

An MRI scanning machine is purchased for around Rs100 millions by the government and a consultant radiologist is made in charge of it. The procedure is carried out by another low-paid technician. However, the in charge is paid a handsome share of the income even if he is on leave.

Similarly, the patient have to pay Rs300 as user charges for the operation theatre.

The kits for detecting hepatitis B and C are available for Rs40 each in the open market, whereas the patient have to pay Rs440 at the HMC and other hospitals.

The “income” from the user charges is again split at the ratio of 60:40 between the hospital and consultants.

In the same way charges of blood transfusion are rising every year at the government hospitals, and the patients have to pay a handsome amount despite providing the blood by their relatives.

The blood banks at the hospitals again charge them for keeping the blood and carrying out certain tests.

Moreover patients are asked to undergo various expensive tests even if there is no need of it.

An attendant of a patient, seeking anonymity, said: “My patient remained for two weeks in the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) after a road accident. He received 12 pints of blood for which we paid an hefty amount to the blood bank as fee. Apart from an X- ray he was asked to go through various other tests.”

Patients admitted to the hospitals are given weeks long appointments even for a simple ultrasound examination, whereas those of the OPD are examined at the spot for they are charged and 40 per cent of the fee directly goes to the employees.

Many of the doctors who had resigned in protest against the Institution-based Practice (IBP) were of the view that if the patients were mixed at the public sector hospitals the poor people would be at the receiving end.

Though, the government has abolished the IBP, but its introduction has cost the patients immensely, who are now required to pay for every service at the government-owned hospitals.

The so-called user charges are often being increased by each hospital in the garb of autonomy.

The IBP has changed the attitude of the employees as every incoming patient is seen as a potential source of income. During the IBP, a cardiologist, at one of the city’s hospitals used to send a few patients from the wards to the OPD in the evening for Echo-cardiography. Out of Rs500, he used to get a legal share of Rs300.