Pune District Guardian Minister Chandrakant Patil Sunday batted for creating a non-governmental organization (NGO)-type scheme, with the help of doctors, which will be beneficial for needy patients.
“I will say that the doctors giving treatment to needy patients in their budget is definitely a good thing. But you can connect people like us through which can create an NGO-type scheme. This will be apart from the things that the government is already doing and it can benefit needy patients. The doctors and people like us can together think about such an initiative,” Patil said after inaugurating ‘UROKUL’, a 105-bed single speciality hospital for urology, on the Pune-Mumbai Highway in Baner.
This is the only third specialised hospital dedicated to urology in the country, with the other two in Nadiad (in Gujarat) and Hyderabad (in Telangana). Senior urologist Dr Sanjay Kulkarni and Dr Jyotsana Kulkarni, founders of UROKUL; noted orthopaedic surgeon Dr KH Sancheti, and senior urologist Dr Deepak Kirpekar were present on the occasion.
Patil also talked about the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat scheme. “Due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s effort, the Ayushman Bharat scheme has started, which will benefit 50 crore people, who will not have to spend a single rupee for medical treatment. Under this, people will carry ATM cards worth Rs 5 lakh and the hospital bill will get deducted from it. Rs 5 lakh is provision for one year… In the past one year, three crore people have benefited from it,” Patil said.
“Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis concentrated on this program. He also used Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds on a large scale and spent Rs 1,100 crore in five years for patients. He also started the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund,” Patil elaborated. He also said a portal has been started to generate funds for needy patients and gave the example of a patient in Kolhapur in western Maharashtra, for whom Rs 30 lakh was collected.