ASHA hospitals wait for Rs. 500 cr dues

•According to hospitals, they have rendered services worth Rs 1,800 cr so far after the NDA govt came to power in the state under NTR Vaidya Seva

•Of which, the state govt cleared`1,500 cr, but`2,250 cr is pending from the previous YSRCP govt

•Hospitals which stopped services to employees under EHS three days back, planning to stop all services if dues are not paid by Jan 25

 Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Specialty Hospitals (NTR Vaidya Seva network hospitals) which are rendering medical services to the patients under the NTR Vaidya Seva (Aarogyasri) are eagerly waiting for the release of Rs 500 crore as assured by the state government.

The Andhra Pradesh Specialty Hospital Association (ASHA) has demanded the government to release the dues of Rs 1,000 crore as the hospitals are facing severe fund crunch and financial problems. Since the start of the NDA rule, the hospitals have provided medical services worth Rs 1,800 crore to the patients. Out of which the NDA government had released Rs 1,500 crore and another Rs 300 crore is pending.

The medical and health department officials two days ago held talks with the Network hospi-tals and assured to release Rs 500 crore. On the other hand, the NTR Vaidya Seva network hospitals are demanding the government to release Rs 1,000 crore dues.

The government is struggling to clear the bills pending worth of Rs 2,250 crore for the services rendered during the previous YSRCP rule.

Network hospitals are saying that the previous YSRCP government had neglected their de-mands and did not pay the dues forcing hospitals into financial crisis.

Since the NDA government came to power, the network hospitals have been asking for clear-ance of pending dues.

The NDA government seems to be not interested to pay the dues which have been pending from the YSRCP rule.

ASHA president Dr Vijay Kumar said the hospitals are eagerly waiting for the release of Rs 500 crore as assured by the state government. He said the specialty hospitals have set the dead-line of January 25 to release dues of Rs 1,000 crore.

He said so far, medical services under the Employees Health Scheme (EHS) have been stopped in the network hospitals for the last three days.

He said the network hospitals will take a decision on halting the services to the patients under the NTR Vaidya Seva scheme also if the government doesn’t release Rs 1,000 crore by January 25.

Dr Vijay Kumar said the ASHA hospitals faced many problems under the YSRCP rule due to non-release of dues. He said the hospitals now are not able to meet the administrative expenses and even to buy new equipment due to financial problems and urged the government to release Rs 1,000 crore.