The costs shown on that poster include not only room rent but also visits by RMO / intensivists / senior consultants; nebulisation, oxygen charges; all medicines, supplements needed for COVID treatment
It has come to our notice that an image showing per-day treatment charges for COVID-19 patients is being widely shared and commented upon.
We would like to clarify that this image does not convey all the facts and has given rise to an unfortunate misperception that the per-day charges displayed relate to room rent alone.
This is totally incorrect. The stated charges include most treatment packages for the very critical COVID-19 patients who alone are treated at our facility.
The costs shown on that poster include not only the room rent but also visits by RMO / intensivists / senior consultants; nebulisation and oxygen charges; all medicines and supplements needed for COVID treatment; all medical consumables; all routine pathology and radiology investigations such as X-ray, ultrasound and ECG as well as diet and related charges.
Once again it is emphasised that this is for serious patients who need to be admitted in this facility. We have substantially reduced rates for patients with only minor symptoms at the next-door Sheraton Hotel that has been converted into a treatment centre for COVID patients.
For the more rare ICU stays, the stated cost also includes charges for the ventilator and other equipment that are then needed.
For non-critical COVID patients, we have a range of options available across all price bands. For patients with moderate symptoms, Max Healthcare is managing a 150-room isolation facility at ITC Sheraton, Saket at Rs 10000 / day. It has also introduced a home care service for mild patients for as little as Rs 333 /day. Max Healthcare has been encouraging people with mild and moderate symptoms to self-isolate and avoid visiting the hospital.
Max Healthcare has been serving patients from EWS sections (10 per cent) free of cost and serves CGHS, ECHS and other panel patients at subsidised pricing.
We are running close to 1,000 COVID beds and have so far treated over 2,000 COVID patients. We have 1,970 healthcare workers (HCWs) taking care of these patients round the clock. We had over 427 HCWs falling sick and admitted. We had 3,220 staff quarantined and intermittently off-work over the last 2.5 months yet we continue to serve. We have rented quarantine facilities for our staff at five hotels including Four Point Sheraton, Hilton, Pride Plaza, Oyo Hotels and Palms Green as well three hostels in the neighbourhood of our hospitals. We provide research-backed cutting-edge care and our outcomes are comparable to the best. This does make COVID care expensive. However, the accusations of profiteering are completely wrong.
Most people forget that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a huge increase in the cost of care due to factors peculiar to this highly virulent disease that our team of healthcare workers is treating at an extraordinary risk to themselves and their own families.
All hospitals handling COVID-19 patients have to maintain very high levels of infection control, deploy at least 2.5 times more staff (to account for temporary attrition because of quarantine and infection) and take care of their stay, food and medical care if they fall sick. They also have to source high-quality PPE’s for healthcare workers (HCWs) on frontline duty. While the staff wears full personal protective equipment (PPE’s), there is a possibility of being infected through an inadvertent exposure.
The disease progression too varies hugely from patient to patient and the treatment modalities are hugely variable. The patient stay in the hospital is quite long with intermittent spells in ICU’s and often on ventilators. Both these lead to significant additional costs compared to non-COVID patients. COVID-19 patients require round the clock monitoring due to which the number of healthcare workers required to manage these patients is much higher.
In most COVID hospitals, the usual staff shift is for six hours, not the usual eight hours. This means we need to deploy 25 per cent more nurses and doctors to take care of COVID-19 patients. Requirements for doctors, nursing, paramedical and other staff is 2.5 times the normal due to more shifts. There is a 14-day quarantine period for them post this extended duty, in addition to seven days that they get to spend with their families after the quarantine period is over. Nurses and trained medical work force are in short supply and we are doing our best to manage with the resources we have.
Max Healthcare operates super-specialty hospitals offering the best-possible medical treatment in the entire region. Its COVID facilities, for which the rates were published, are only meant for very serious patients who require high-end critical care to save their lives.
We at Max, are a tertiary care hospital for serious COVID-19 patients who cannot be managed at home or even at the other facilities. We are presently running 135 ICU beds with almost 100 per cent occupancy. We deploy highly trained nurses and critical care specialists to look after these sick patients.
We are also running research protocols for new drugs as well as a trial for Convalescent Plasma Therapy (CPT), which is showing encouraging results. We are working at the cutting edge of technology as far as COVID care is concerned.
Max Healthcare works on the critical mission of healing people and saving lives. We are on the forefront of India’s fight against the COVID pandemic. Thousands of COVID patients have been treated and cured till now at our facilities. We will continue to make sincere efforts to provide the best-possible medical care to all our patients from all levels of the society.
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