The
Hindu: Madurai: Friday, 26 June 2015.
Revealing
information obtained through the RTI Act on the functioning of Chief Minister’s
Health Insurance Scheme, an activist has pointed out several lapses, financial
loss to exchequer due to lack of accountability and how a number of private
hospitals had benefitted more from the scheme than government institutions.
Presenting
the data furnished by the Health and Family Welfare department officials, Anand
Raj, an RTI activist, and People’s Watch Executive Director Henry Tiphagne said
on Thursday that only 83 out of 240 hospitals situated in taluks had benefitted
under the scheme.
When many
private hospitals made good money, it was not the case with government
hospitals. In as many as 18 government hospitals, earnings from the scheme
depleted year after year, while it crossed Rs 1400 crore for private hospitals
in the last five years, they said.
Inquiries by
the activist and his team with doctors in government hospitals suggested that
they had referred patients to private hospitals for a number of reasons. For
instance, in taluk-level hospitals, there were no specialists like
anaesthetists. Similarly, the infrastructural facilities for performing
complicated surgeries were inadequate.
Hence,
officials in the Health and Family Welfare Department had introduced incentives
for doctors and para-medical staff in government hospitals.
Though
welcome, the hospitals did not have sufficient facilities, Mr. Anandraj said
and recalled the fate of a 32-year-old woman Sitalakshmi of Kanyakumari
district, who slipped into coma and died after eight months, following a
complication. The revelation indicated that the taluk hospital in Kuzhithurai
did not have ventilator or other gadgets in the post-operative ward. Likewise,
another patient, Chellam of Alagapuripatti in Madurai district, who underwent
surgery at Melur taluk hospital, died on August 21, 2013, due to absence of
experienced surgeons.
Keeping in
mind the cash incentives, government hospitals with lesser bed strength in
districts such as Ramanathapuram and Vellore had performed more number of
surgeries, while those with higher number of beds and adequate infrastructure
had not risen up to the occasion, thus raising a question on the accountability
of doctors in 30 government hospitals situated in towns such as Hosur,
Vriddhachalam, Bhavani and Gudiyatham, the data revealed.
Thanjavur
last
With 1,008
beds, Ramanathapuram government hospital emerged on top in the insurance scheme
in 2014 by earning Rs. 5 crore and the Thanjavur Government Hospital, with
1,067 beds, was ranked last as it had earned a meagre Rs 67 lakh.
Hospitals
with limited infrastructure should be instructed not to ‘experiment’ with poor
patients’ lives, the activist appealed to the government. Mr. Tiphagne mooted
social audit. In the event of death of a patient who had taken the insurance
scheme, post-mortem should be mandatory as the legal heirs could get
compensation.
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