Demonetisation after one year: Patients prefer paying in cash, govt hospitals yet to go completely digital

At Sassoon General Hospital cash remains the preferred mode of payment.

In the aftermath of demonetisation last year, major government hospitals in Pune had made arrangements to accept digital payments, but one year down the line, most transactions are once again being made via cash. Most of the patients coming to these hospitals are not comfortable with digital modes of payment. The amount of transactions is also small, for which cash is preferred.

At the 1,296-bed Sassoon General Hospital, authorities admitted that in the first three months after demonetisation, efforts were made to introduce point of sales (POS) card swipe machines. The largest government hospital in the city receives about 2,000 patients in its out-patient department, and another 600 to 800 patients are admitted for treatment every day. There are 17 categories of patients, including those living below the poverty line, senior citizens, and women, who avail free treatment at government hospitals. Even for the other patients, the medical bill is rarely more than Rs 300 to Rs 400, and they usually prefer paying in cash.

Dr Ajay Chandanwale, Dean, B J Government Medical College, said that Bank of Baroda had helped them by providing the card swipe machines and these were installed at various floors in the hospital. He also pointed out that several other services were already available online.

Medical Superintendent Dr Ajay Taware said that for the first three months after noteban, they had utilised the machines, but patients and their family members preferred to pay cash.

A year ago, the state health directorate had instructed its 23 district hospitals to procure card swipe machines from their contingency fund. There are 96 primary health centres and 19 rural hospitals in Pune district.

Dr Sanjay Deshmukh, deputy director of health, Pune circle, said that while they had procured the machines, they were rarely used at primary health centres or rural hospitals, where a patient usually has to pay Rs 5-10. The maximum cost that a patient may incur, for radiological and pathological investigations, is about Rs 50 .

The situation is somewhat similar in the 300-bed Aundh Civil Hospital, where civil surgeon R B Shelke said that cash was the preferred mode of payment for most patients. “A majority of our patients live below the poverty line and not everyone has a debit or credit card. Even bills of patients, who have been admitted for a long time, are not very high,” said Shelke.

However, Chandanwale said that work was still underway to install a new software at government medical colleges to handle the payment of fees and other cash transactions. “Various departments like finance and IT are involved and work is still underway,” he said.