Regulate COVID-19 test fee, pvt hospital costs: Group urges Noida DM

Noida (UP), Jun 15 () A non-government body urged the Gautam Buddh Nagar administration on Monday to reduce the cost of the coronavirus test and regulate the treatment charge at private facilities.

Gautam Buddh Nagar, adjoining Delhi, in western Uttar Pradesh has recorded 935 COVID-19 cases so far, including 12 deaths.

In a letter to District Magistrate Suhas LY, the Progressive Community Foundation (PCF), a volunteers' group working on traffic, pollution and civic issues, said, "Due to the daily increasing numbers of cases in large communities and people showing ILI (influenza-like illness) symptoms getting positive for COVID, there is an immediate need to identify people at greatest risk with respect to age, gender, comorbidities, biomarkers and specific blood parameters and prioritise them for the test and hence, increasing the testing will help identify the suspected people at an early stage."

It also demanded a price reduction for COVID-19 tests, noting that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has advised the states and Union territories to negotiate with private laboratories and fix up mutually agreeable prices for the RT-PCR tests last month.

The PCF also sought the DM's intervention in the "exorbitant charges" at private hospitals for the treatment COVID-19.

"...a few private hospitals in the district have announced COVID treatment packages and are charging exorbitantly for it. This needs some regulation.... We request you to issue an advisory in this regard and cap the price of treatment at private hospitals," it said.

Copies of the PCF letter, by office-bearers Vishnu Saini and Amit Gupta, have been sent to the Uttar Pradesh chief minister's office and to the Gautam Buddh Nagar Chief Medical Officer. KIS RC