In addition, 291 procedures that were reserved to be performed only at government hospitals have also been unreserved, opening up more facilities for patients.

Earlier, referrals were a must for patients to get any facilities. Now, the health department has decided to conduct a pilot study at four private medical college hospitals (St John's Medical College, M S Ramaiah Medical College, Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences, Ambedkar Medical College Hospital) to ascertain if the scheme can work without referrals.

"There are close to 1,600 procedures that come under the scheme and patients can get any of them done at these four hospitals, without any referral. These hospitals will be paid the rates that are applicable at government hospitals," said Harsh Gupta, Principal Secretary (Health).

The decision was taken also considering the shortage of beds in government facilities.

According to an estimate, Bengaluru has close to 10,000 beds at government facilities, at least 3,000 fewer than stipulated by the Indian Public Health Standards. On the other hand, there are close to 22,000 beds at private healthcare facilities.

"Adding beds and creating new government health facilities takes time. We are working on building new facilities and adding beds at the existing ones. However, all of these take years to be completed. Hence, as an immediate solution, we have come up with this programme," Gupta added.

Based on the success of the pilot programme at four hospitals, the department will extend it to all private medical college hospitals in the city and further across the state, depending on the requirement.