Pregnant women will also get travel allowances from private centers if such centers accept the government proposal.
The Family Health Division (FHD), under the Department of Health Services (DoHS), said that the office is preparing a separate guideline to rope in private centers for expanding the ongoing safe motherhood program. [break]
"We are working to expand the ongoing program to private centers," Dr Silu Aryal, focal person for the program, said. Several medical colleges and community hospitals are already providing free services and allowances to pregnant women.
The health centers of mountain regions, which run the program, provide Rs 1,500 in allowances. Women in the hill districts get Rs 1,000 and those in the Tarai region get Rs 700.
The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) refunds the private hospitals for providing free care and allowances to women who come for delivery service.
"Due to budget crunch, we could not tie up with private centers to run the program last year," said Dr Aryal, adding, "We are working to expand the program in this fiscal year." Dr Aryal said that the office has also been monitoring the service provided by the private centers that are already providing the service.
The FHD has also warned the private hospitals for making the patients pay for medicines and other items.
"We have found some hospitals asking patient to buy medicines," she said. Likewise, the division has also warned the nursing homes and private hospitals for high rate of caesarean-section during delivery.
The FHD in the past had also written formal letters to some renowned nursing homes and medical colleges expressing concern about the high rate of caesarean-section than normal delivery. Compared to the government hospitals, private hospitals are found to have caesarean deliveries three times more, the FHD says.
The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has been providing free service to expecting mothers from government health centers across the country since 2009.
The government aims to reduce existing maternal mortality rate to meet Millennium Development Goal (MDG) as pledged to the international community.
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