‘Poor’ Rajasthan VIPs qualifying for free medical treatment.

Daily Mail: Jaipur: Saturday, May 19, 2012.

The SMS Hospital in Jaipur where doctors, bureaucrats

and ministers are not charged for MRI or CT scans.

The Planning Commission says those living on a 'princely' sum of Rs860 every month cannot be categorised as poor.

In Rajasthan, however, doctors, bureaucrats, ministers and even former ministers qualify to be treated as poor and are not required to pay for medical examinations at the Sawai Man Singh Hospital in Jaipur. If one is a doctor, or has contacts with a doctor of the hospital, then one can avail of many facilities free of cost.

The treating doctor only has to fill in a form saying the patient falls under the category of 'free/poor'.

Information obtained through an RTI has revealed that the list of persons who availed of the facility under this category at the hospital included parliamentary secretary Dilip Chaudhary, former minister Kalu Lal Gurjar and a number of doctors from Jaipur and other places.

They were not charged for MRI and CT scan, for which the common man has to pay Rs2,000 at the hospital.

When contacted, Chaudhary claimed he was unaware that the doctor recommended his case under the free/poor category.

Gurjar pointed out that he was entitled for reimbursement from the state assembly. The decision to treat him under the 'poor' category 'must be of the doctor', he, added, claiming he didn't ask for it.

According to a government directive, those who are entitled for reimbursements include MLAs, ministers, ex- MLAs, ex-ministers and government employees.

But when they undergo free examination or treatment under the 'poor' category, it is ultimately paid from the hospital coffers.

The patients entitled for free services include senior citizens, widows, the physically challenged, prisoners including undertrials, medical students, HIV-positive patients, victims of a calamity or a big accident, pensioners (excluding MRI and CT scan) and the poor.

Since the term 'poor' is not clearly defined, the decision is solely of the treating doctor. The hospital superintendent, Dr L.C. Sharma, asserted that a large number of deserving patients were given free treatment.

However, he didn't deny that rules are at times bent to favour some because of 'recommendations'.

'In a hospital where 25,000 blood tests are conducted every day and decisions are taken by around 500 doctors, it is not possible to monitor everything.'