In what appears to be a racket run by a doctor and his close associates at one of India's premier hospitals, families of several patients including some extremely poor sections and beneficiaries of the Ayushman Bharat Scheme, were made to pay huge fees. In some cases, the patient's family members were wrongly informed that they were not eligible for the government's free service under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme. The incident has come to light from Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, one of the premier medical institutions under the Central government, after the accused doctor was arrested by CBI, according to an Indian Express report.
After being involved in cheating patients for nearly three years, Dr Manish Rawat, Associate Professor at the Department of Neurosurgery, Safdarjung Hospital was finally arrested by CBI, the Indian Express report added.
As many as 54 patients have been duped by Rawat and his team, while the CBI chargesheet has mentioned that Rawat has collected nearly Rs 3 crore for implants from poor families over two years, including during the COVID-19 period.
The CBI team investigating the matter unearthed a nexus of companies, middlemen, and Rawat's close aide, including his wife, in the cash-for-treatment racket.
It was discovered that in some cases the doctor's close associates convinced the patient's families that waiting for the medical equipment from the government's side help may worsen their patient's case as it may take up to three months. Still, they could arrange the required medical implant in a day or two.
The Indian Express report reveals that Rawat indirectly mounted pressure on the families of some patients who were in need of medical implants. Using his associates, he would ask them to purchase the implant from outside the hospital, even though the patients were fully covered under the Centre's Ayushman Bharat Scheme.
After a thorough investigation, it was found that there was a huge difference between the actual cost of the medical implant and the cost at which the patients were provided the implant by Rawat's team. In several cases, it was found that the money charged for the implants by the patients was as much as 500 percent higher than the real cost charged by the seller.
Rawat was arrested by CBI in March this year and is in judicial custody. However, the accused's lawyer claims that some employees of the Safdarjung Hospital have falsely implicated Rawat.
After Rawat's arrest, a three-member technical committee was formed by the then Medical Superintendent to investigate the matter, address the cases where implants were not available in the hospital, and help patients procure them at reasonable costs. The committee was established to stop all kinds of direct transactions between doctors and patients regarding the procurement of implants.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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