Kathmandu. Bharatpur Hospital has earned Rs 1.57 billion in the past one year for providing health insurance services to its patients. According to the hospital administration, the amount was received from six months of the last fiscal year and the remaining payment of the previous year.

Among the government hospitals in the country, Bharatpur is one of the hospitals serving the highest number of patients under the health insurance program. According to Liladhar Poudel, chief of the health insurance programme, the hospital provided 493,449 health insurance services in the last fiscal year. The hospital has started the health insurance programme from the fiscal year 2074/75. During this period, 19,70,352 services have been provided.

The hospital has so far received Rs 3.48 billion in this amount, Poudel said. According to him, the hospital’s insurance program has been working 24 hours a day to pay the claims. People from other hospitals in the country also come here to see and learn about the nature of the health insurance program.

Chief Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr Bishwa Bandhu Bagale shared that around 70 per cent of the patients visiting the hospital are of health insurance. Stating that works are being done to make easy management for all the patients in a single day, he said that the time for services to wait for their turn has been reduced.

He said that cash counters have been added, tickets have been made online, the turn of surgery has been reduced and the time of tickets has been increased. According to him, Bharatpur Hospital’s health insurance scheme is taken as a model program in hospitals across the country.

The hospital has been witnessing high pressure of patients in recent times. A total of 3,751 patients visited the OPD on Tuesday. Of them, only 2,948 were of health insurance. Regular patients come here from 22 districts including Chitwan. A large number of patients come from Chitwan and neighbouring districts.