Bhubaneswar: In a bid to facilitate cashless transactions in government hospitals, the state government Saturday asked all district collectors to install card swipe machines to receive use fees.
The electronic data capture machines (also known as swipe machines) would be installed in three government-run medical colleges at Cuttack, Berhampur and Burla, all district headquarters hospitals (DHHs) and sub divisional hospitals (SDHs) in collaboration with concerned banks, where accounts of the hospitals are operating. The health department instructed the collectors to install the machines immediately.
The state government has taken this step in the wake of cash crunch following centre’s demonetisation of `500 and `1000 notes, sources said.
As the two high denomination currencies are not adequately available, the attendants of patients are facing problems while depositing user fees in the hospitals and for various diagnostic tests.
In order to overcome the problem, the government has taken this step, a health department official said, adding, “Once the machines is installed, patients would be able to deposit user fees by swiping their debit and credit cards.” PNN