Patients, others demand to revise mucormycosis treatment package on priority

Aurangabad, May 21:

The patients suffering from mucormycosis (fungal infection disease) and the doctors are worried over the finances required for the treatment of the ailment. The treatment expense goes up to Rs 6 lakh, but the medical treatment package announced under the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana (MJPJAY) is very insufficient. Hence the package needs to be revised on top priority, they expressed.

So far, the screening of 116 patients had been done. A total of 53 patients got admitted for treatment in Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) on Friday. They include 18 from Aurangabad, eight from Ahmednagar, six from Buldhana, two each from Beed, Nanded, and Parbhani, one from Nasik, and seven from Jalna district. Besides, the GMCH had also performed nasal surgeries on 16 patients till today.

The head of the Ear, Nose and Throat department at GMCH Dr. Sunil Deshmukh said," Early visit of the patient helps to diagnose early. If he is fit in health then the operation is also done immediately. We could help patients in coming out of danger through three-hours long aggressive surgery."

It may be noted that every day two to three operations are done jointly by the department of ENT, Anesthesia, and Opthalmology in GMCH. It is learnt that a total of 112 patients suffering from this disease were detected from the district and 24 had succumbed to the ailment.

Free medicines?

Meanwhile, the experts recommend including costly medicines in the old and new treatment package of this fungal disease. They underlined that Amphotericin-B injection is given thrice a day to the patient and it has to be given for 14 consecutive days. Hence the cost of injections comes between Rs 80,000 and Rs 90,000. Besides, the government order (GR) issued regarding the treatment of mucormycosis is confusing. One cannot understand which medicine is free and which is not? As a result, the relatives had to bear the burden of costly medicines as well.

There is a provision of Rs 60,000 only for surgery in the package. Hence the patients had to borne other expenses relating to surgical goods and items. It is also observed that the experts sometimes refuse to perform surgeries on patients due to insufficient provision of money under the package. The doctors claimed that there is a huge difference in the actual cost needed to the patient and the provision of finance made in the package.

According to relatives (of patients) Sukanya Suryawanshi and Swapnil Bawiskar, the district collector had taken the responsibility of providing the medicines to overcome the shortage of medicines, but when they are not provided, despite demanding, then we had to start a search for them in the city. Few medicines are costly and unaffordable. One of the medicine costs more than Rs 1 lakh, they claimed.

The MJPJAY coordinator at GMCH, Dr. Suchita Joshi said, " The medical package for the disease is Rs 60,000, while the package of operations in eyes or nose is between Rs 15,000 and Rs 40,000. The expense of ICU, other complications, and costly anti-fungal medicines should have been included in the package. The charges mentioned in the package are old and should be revised, with the inclusion of necessary medicines, on priority."