Drug and investigation costs of inward patients: Expenses from the patient and the government

Abstract

Government spends a huge amount of money on health. Although the government spends considerably, the patients also have to spend while they stay in a government hospital. To study the expenditure on drugs and investigations while patients stay in hospital and to analyses these costs D comparing patients' expenditure and government's expenditure. Expenditure of 100 patients who were treated in paediatric, medical and surgical units for 3 -10 days were studied. Details of drug and investigation costs were collected from patients' Bed Head Tickets (BHTs), hospital pharmacy, private pharmacies, and private laboratories. Average total drug costs were Rs 1864, Rs 3908, Rs 4245 from the patient and Rs 862, Rs 964 and Rs 1369 from the government in paediatric, medical and surgical units respectively. Average total investigation costs were Rs 2138, Rs 2698, Rs 4652 from the patient and Rs 5554, Rs 10789, Rs 5010 from the government in paediatric, medical and surgical units respectively. The average expenditure from patient in surgical unit was higher than that of other two units. The highest drug expenditure was for antibiotics from the government as well as from the patient in all units. The highest investigation cost was for blood investigations from the patient as well as from the government in all units except in surgical unit where the patient spent more for radiological investigations. Patients' expenditure on drug was higher than that of government while patients' expenditure on investigations was lower than that of government in all three units.