Mumbai: To ensure indigent patients get easy access to free or subsidised medical care, the state govt will take over the day-to-day working of a scheme devised by the Bombay High Court in 2006 to ensure that 20% of the beds in private charity trust-run hospitals are available either free or at 50% rates to them.Digital payoffs, a toll-free helpline, and a network of medical social workers will be part of the reworked scheme, which will function under chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. As per the 2006 HC formula, people with a family income of Rs 1.8 lakh per annum are eligible for free hospitalisation, while those with a family income of Rs 3.6 lakh per annum can avail of the 50% subsidised beds. The scheme was monitored by the charity commissioner, with hospitals needing to maintain an Indigent Patients’ Fund (IPF) with 2% of their revenue for this scheme.The implementation of the scheme was far from smooth though. In March, a Pune hospital refused to admit a woman with a high-risk pregnancy in labour because of her family’s inability to pay a hefty deposit. After the woman died, the issue snowballed, and the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) started an inquiry against the woman’s treating doctor, Sushrut Ghaisas.“The idea is to centralise the scheme under the CMO, ensuring funds are channelled to help the right patients at the earliest,” said Rameshwar Naik, who heads the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, which will work with the charity commissioner’s office to oversee the reworked scheme. However, the Pune patient’s death is only one of the reasons for reworking the scheme. “A few months back, the chief minister’s office independently carried out a financial analysis of a few trust-run hospitals in the state’s major metros and found a few gaps,” he said.Most hospitals had multiple accounts to receive payments (one for diagnostics, another for medicines, and so on), but funds to the IPF were only being sent from one of the payment-receiving accounts. “We are finalising a digital platform that will receive 2% of the funds from each of these accounts,” said Naik, adding that the setup should be ready within a month. The funds will be centrally managed to ensure thousands of subsidised and free beds are available for the poorest “within 24 hours” of them registering for help.Eligible patients can call a toll-free number to find out the nearest trust hospital. The patient or his/her family member can then reach out to a medical social worker specially assigned to that hospital. “We are in the process of appointing 186 medical social workers, with each hospital in Mumbai and Pune having one MSW on duty daily,” said Naik.Many of the trust-run hospitals have complained of pressure by local politicians to treat non-indigent patients for free. “The new scheme will be so transparent and centralised that hospitals can’t be harassed with such requests,” he added.According to Joy Chakraborty of Hinduja Hospital, Mahim, who was present for the meetings to discuss the working of trust hospitals, “The govt and the charity commissioner are trying to bring about some discipline in the scheme. It will take time, tech applications, and momentum to get all hospitals on board. I am sure the hospitals and the govt will work together in the better interests of the patients.”