MUMBAI: Essential public healthcare services across Maharashtra, including free laboratory diagnostic testing at primary health centres (PHCs), life-saving dialysis facilities, and Hinduhridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Aapla Dawakhana clinics have been affected due to non-payment of dues.
The state also warned that if services are interrupted, the government will invoke stringent legal remedies and blacklist the agency for three years. Several legislators, including Shiv Sena leader Bachchu Kadu, had written to the chief minister seeking urgent intervention. Payment against bills and agreement between the service provider and government are two different things. We will assure that there is no disruption in the services again.”
In its letter to the commissioner of health services & mission director of the National Health Mission (NHM), Maharashtra, HLL had said, “An acute working capital crunch has made it impossible to meet baseline operational expenditures, including the procurement of critical testing kits, reagents, consumables for 137 laboratories, and monthly salaries for more than 4,000 healthcare personnel. no payments had been released for dialysis or Aapla Dawakhana services While HLL acknowledged a partial disbursement of ₹ 29.39 crore on October 14 for Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHCs). NHM commissioner and mission director Sanjay Katkar also issued a strongly worded counter-directive on October 31, reminding HLL of its legal and contractual commitments across all three public-private partnership agreements.
In response, the National Health Mission (NHM) said that while bills worth ₹ 137 crore for district and rural hospitals have been sanctioned under NHM, the payment cannot be immediately released due to treasury constraints.
The NHM said outstanding dues will be cleared only “as and when funds are available”. NHM said that under various rules and regulations, HLL Lifecare cannot unilaterally discontinue services. Mutual consent and a mandatory notice period is required, making HLL’s short notice legally untenable, according to NHM’s reply. “We have been receiving continuous calls from citizens complaining about the imminent breakdown of essential diagnostic tests, dialysis centres, and Aapla Dawakhana clinics,” Kadu said. NHM Commissioner and Mission Director Sanjay Katkar said, “We held discussions with HLL and the services have been resumed after our assurances.
With a cash-strapped state government failing to clear outstandings amounting to ₹ 1,067 crore to HLL Lifecare Limited, the company had stopped critical health operations from November 1. HLl Lifecare had written to state health authorities in October saying that the government’s liabilities exceeded ₹ 1,067.27 crore across the last two years. The dues for laboratory diagnostic services were ₹ 877.15 crore, while those for free dialysis services were pegged at ₹ 126.27 crore. Dues for the Aapla Dawakhana clinics amounted to ₹ 63.83 crore. Apart from the monthly burden of around ₹ 2,450 crore toward the implementation of its flagship Ladki Bahin Yojana, the state is reeling under the unanticipated strain of drought mitigation, projected to require over ₹ 40,000 crore over the next nine months.
The Thiruvananthapuram-based public sector undertaking will start resuming services from Wednesday after assurances that its dues will be cleared in a phased manner. The situation has cast a spotlight on the worsening fiscal health of the state government.
Its letter added, “We will endeavour to continue laboratory diagnostic services at district hospitals and rural hospitals for a limited period, using available resources, but diagnostic tests at PHCs and all dialysis and clinic services will be halted unless an interim relief payment of at least ₹ 200 crore is released immediately.”
