Kerala State AIDS Control Society ties up with private hospitals

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Kerala State Aids Control Society ties up with private hospitals

Express News/ 03 Oct 2008 10:44:00 AM IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major policy initiative to map the untapped HIV

positive cases coming to the private hospitals, Kerala State AIDS Control

Society (KSACS) has tied up with hospitals in the private sector to set up

counselling and testing centres for HIV.

So far 25 private hospitals in the State have entered into an agreement with the

KSACS to set up Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTC) for HIV. Till

now only the Government hospitals were having ICTCs in the state.

It is estimated that over 60 percent of the people use the private sector for

out-patient care and more than 50 percent for in-patient care. But these

hospitals were not having a data bank for the HIV cases.

This initiative has been launched following the National AIDS Control

Organisation's (NACO) decision to encourage public-private partnership under the

third phase of the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP).

`In the first phase, the KSACS is targeting to tie up with 50 hospitals for

setting up these centres. The first private hospital to launch this centre was

in Munnar,'' Usha Titus, Project Director, KSACS, told *this website's

newspaper*.

The KSACS would be providing the kits to these hospitals for conducting the

three tests for detecting HIV cases. As per the NACO guidelines the hospital can

charge only Rs.75 per person for the test. ``The quality of HIV tests in the

private hospitals are also expected to improve since no hospitals are conducting

the three tests which are made mandatory for HIV detection,'' said

Dr.Sreekumari, Joint Director, ICTC Project.

However, several super speciality hospitals have refused to cooperate with the

project, since they were not allowed to charge more for the tests. With the kind

of facilities these hospitals have they are not willing to fix the rate of the

tests at Rs.75.

The KSACS team had a daunting task in convincing the private hospitals in coming

to an agreement. When a few hospitals came forward offering the tests free of

cost realising the social responsibility, some refused.

``The idea behind setting up these centres is to get wider reach for the HIV

tests. It will undoubtedly benefit more people. Moreover, we have no data on the

HIV cases from the private hospitals. With these centres, we could collect the

actual cases coming to private hospitals,'' Dr.Sreekumari said. These ICTCs will

come under the strict monitoring of the KSACS and will be functioning as per the

guidelines issued by the NACO. Most of the private medical colleges have tied up

for this project.

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________________________________

S.Ajai Kumar

Joint Director IEC

Kerala SACS

Red Cross Road

Thiruvananthapuram - 35

Kerala, India

E-MAIL: <ajai.ksacs@...>