Cheaper diagnostic tests to soon be available at UP hospitals with dedicated revolving funds

Moving towards affordable medical care, the Uttar Pradesh government is planning to start Investigation Revolving Fund (IRF) soon for UP hospitals. A revolving fund is basically a corpus fund that remains available to finance an organisation's operations, including medicines, without any fiscal year limitation, as the organisation keeps replenishing the fund by repaying money used from the account. 

As of now, the Uttar Pradesh Budget has allotted ₹12 crore for IRF.

Health establishments, which will run IRF, will first generate a corpus fund, sufficient for procurement of lab consumables to conduct tests for patients. The money generated from patients against the tests will further be used to purchase consumables. This way, the corpus will remain with the health facility and tests will be done at cheaper rates, as compared to private labs. Under the IRF agreement, manufacturers of laboratory paraphernalia will supply consumables at discounted rates to hospitals.

IRF will help state-run medical colleges/hospitals to provide diagnostic facilities at cheaper rates, similar to in- house medical stores. Revolving fund provides medicines at up to 60% discount and is currently operational in Lucknow at institutes such as King George's Medical University, SGPGIMS and Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences.