Who are the actual beneficiaries of CM’s Free Diagnostic Services?

Who are the actual beneficiaries of CM’s Free Diagnostic Services?

Our Correspondent

TINSUKIA: With outside patients outnumbering in-house patients in government-run District Civil Hospitals across Assam, the question arises who are the actual beneficiaries of the Chief Minister’s Free Diagnostic Services launched in Pubic Private Partnership (PPP) mode with multinational companies?

After The Sentinel brought CT scan issue to light, now Clinical Diagnostic Test has surfaced. For the free laboratory test, the National Health Mission (NHM) Assam had tied up with Thiruvananthapuram-based HLL Lifecare Limited.

About 80 percent of patients seeking free diagnostic clinical tests in GNB Civil Hospital, Tinsukia are from rural areas and being referred by private practitioners. The patients, armed with prescriptions of private doctors, get themselves registered in the Civil Hospital in OPD and force the doctors to recommend the same tests. Usually, multiple tests like LFT/RE/LPT are suggested to raise the bill amount to Rs 2,000. On average, 2500-3000 patients receive free tests in a month and the service provider HLL Lifecare pockets approximately Rs 5 lakh. According to GNB Civil Hospital sources, in the month of October alone the authorities cleared the bill amounting to Rs 5.9 lakh. Though the local private laboratories, through which both private and government practitioners used to earn huge commissions against each recommended test, made a shortfall following this development, several third party players surfaced across the district who allegedly bring patients (customers) from interior areas to get the tests done ‘free’ at the Civil Hospital against hefty commissions.

Though the government wanted to provide healthcare services to the socio-economically deprived population of Assam with ‘free’ services and also improve infrastructural facilities of district hospitals, in reality, the government has let the multinationals flourish at the cost of the taxpayers’ money.

Viewing the mad rush for free x-ray, CT scan and diagnostics, a senior medical officer of a government hospital said, “Considering the quantum of fees paid to the private service provider for diagnostic tests like CT scan and clinical tests, besides subsidies enjoyed by these companies for procuring instruments, the government could have provided the same services at a much cheaper rate saving crores of rupees.”

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