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Mumbai Hospitals Set to Raise Bills

A 70 per cent hike in the power rates supplied by the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) has compelled some of the hospitals situated in South Mumbai to increase the hospital tariffs by 10 to 25 per cent. The patients getting treated at PD Hinduja Hospital will see more than five per cent increase in the hospital bills in the coming days. "Our hospital has witnessed Rs 30 lakh hike in the monthly electricity bills. This will lead to 10 per cent increase in the bed charges and five per cent increase in the surgeon fees," said Pramod Lele, CEO, Hinduja Hospital. Hinduja is not alone, but overall 18 hospitals situated in South Mumbai have directly been affected by Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) new tariff. One such affected hospital is Jaslok Hospital, which is also considering pushing up prices. "From Rs 27 lakh that we normally pay, for the last month we received the electricity bill of Rs 58 lakh, a total increase of 31 lakh! This implies that our per day expenditure has gone up by Rs 1 lakh," explains Col Manesh Masand, CEO, Jaslok Hospital.

Jaslok is planning to increase the charges only for the upper-class patients who will see a rise in the bed charges for AC, twin, single and deluxe rooms. "As it is, charity-run hospitals hardly have profitability. However, it is not that only charity or trust run hospitals will be affected. This will also have an adverse affect on corporate hospitals. Therefore, I wonder why they are keeping mum on this very topic," said Lele.

Col Masand pointed out that trust hospitals had a series of concessions, including paying only 50 per cent of electricity charges. "This is very unfair on BEST's part when the High Court has given a clear directive to them in terms of parameters to decrease charges. Earlier, BEST used to charge 4. 25 paise per unit after exceeding 1,000 units. Now, they have increased it to 8.70 paise per unit for the same usage without giving any prior notice," says Col Masand.

EH News Bureau