Kathmandu, March 26

Management Division of the Department of Health Services, Teku, has demanded an additional budget of Rs 800 million from the Ministry of Finance for Impoverished Citizen Treatment Fund.

Of the total allocated budget of Rs 1.189 billion, the division has only Rs 900 million and we have yet to provide reimbursement fund to the hospitals for two more quarters,” said Prakash Ghimire, assistant health professional at Management Division.

The government has designated 75 hospitals across the country to provide free health care services to the people from poor and marginalised communities suffering from life-threatening diseases such as kidney failure, heart diseases, cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer, head and spinal injury and sickle cell anemia.

“We have already paid more than Rs 480 million to as many as 39 hospitals across the country in the fiscal 2016/17,” informed Ghimire.

“The government has enlisted 36 additional hospitals this fiscal to provide treatment for life-threanening diseases to needy patients which has created financial crisis at the division”, he said and added that every month hospitals sent application for reimbursement along with the list of patients who received free treatment.

Only in Province 7 there are no hospitals to provide free treatment to patients from poor and marginalised communities for the above mentioned diseases.