Cong's Sravan Dasoju demands Telangana CM to curtail exorbitant COVID-19 test charges in private hospitals

AICC National Spokesperson Sravan Dasoju on Thursday alleged that exorbitant rates are being charged by private hospitals and diagnostics centres for COVID-19 tests and demanded Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao to immediately curtail them.

The senior Congress party leader appealed to the Chief Minister to initiate strict action against those private hospitals which are heavily looting the public by charging hefty fees for conducting COVID-19 RT-PCR tests at hospitals as well as home collection services.

Dasoju criticised the government and alleged that it issued name sake Government Orders and ignoring their implementation thereby providing an opportunity to the private hospitals and diagnostics laboratories to loot the public with their self crafted charges. Speaking to , Dasoju said, "On one side we see an upsurge of the second wave of Covid-19 but, on the other side the government of Telangana has completely failed in terms of conducting an adequate number of Covid-19 tests. There are not many test facilities available in Telangana. On top of it, even if anybody wants to go to the private diagnostics laboratory on their own choice to conduct the test, it's costing heavily to them."According to Dasoju, on December 21, 2020, the government of Telangana had come up with a government order where it clearly said that the samples which are collected at the labs should be priced at Rs 500 and the samples which are collected from home should be priced Rs 750 per test. He further said, "If you go to any diagnostics laboratory in Hyderabad or Telangana, one needs to shell out Rs 850 per test to be conducted at the hospital and Rs 1,200 per a home collection test, which means that there is a scant respect for the government order and nobody is giving any credentials these orders."

The AICC leader has also suggested the government not to limit its role in issuing government orders but act thoroughly to save the common man from being looted by the private hospitals.

"The government is issuing orders for namesake, not ensuring that these orders are implemented in private hospitals. We question the government that when you have given this order then why are you not ensuring that this is implemented properly?", he questioned.

"Common people are not able to go to any private hospital or diagnostics centre because it is a huge burden to their pocket. I appeal to the government, your job is not over yet but, it begins now that you have to ensure that GOs are strictly implemented and the public are not looted by the private hospitals", Dosaju added.

( With inputs from ANI )