Central Health Ministry: Medical practitioners to go digital

Mumbai: The central health ministry has sent out a letter to the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC), saying that from April 2017, all private medical practitioners should accept payments through swipe machines.

The Union health ministry has issued an advisory to MMC regarding this matter. The instructions and messages being circulated amongst private practitioners say, “ Doctors must have a swipe machine from the next financial year and they must also submit a certificate received from the bank to renew their registrations.”

The salary of medical staff must also be transferred online into their accounts.  The Chief Minister’s Office would verify the number of staff members and their salary, for which the staff has to submit an affidavit. For nursing homes, if the staff number exceeds 10, the labour commissioner will verify the number and salary and the certificate issued by the labour commissioner would be submitted to the CMO for the renewal of registration of a nursing home.

Amounts excedding Rs 5,000 will not be accepted in cash at hospitals and all medical stores, which, too, have to keep swipe machines. The medical stores have to follow the same procedure as the hospitals for renewal of their registration.

MMC’s executive member, Dr Shivkumar Utture, said, “Yes, we have heard about this notification regarding mandatory usage of swipe machines and Paytm. But there would be trouble as there are no credit or debit cards available for people who don’t have accounts.”

He added: “Even in metro cities, government hospitals are refusing to accept credit cards, making a mockery of the aggressive push to go cashless. This will certainly take time.”

Despite state governments issuing directives to state- and municipality-run hospitals to promote digital payments, an overwhelming majority of these are yet to install card swipe machines.