Hospital, service provider flout accord on free CT scans to poor
Due to the alleged insincere and indifferent attitude of the authorities of the Guru Gobind Singh medical college and hospital (GGSMCH) here, a large number of the deserving patients were not provided the free-of-cost CT scan facility, which they were entitled to as per the terms of the agreement between the service provider and the authorities of the hospital.
Due to the alleged insincere and indifferent attitude of the authorities of the Guru Gobind Singh medical college and hospital (GGSMCH) here, a large number of the deserving patients were not provided the free-of-cost CT scan facility, which they were entitled to as per the terms of the agreement between the service provider and the authorities of the hospital.
As per the document provided by activists of Bhai Kanhaiya Cancer Roko Sewa Society to the media, only 30 CT scans were done free of cost out of the total of about 11,896 during the four years from December 2008 to January 2013.
“The agreement between the service provider, a private party, and authorities of the hospital, says 10 per cent CT scans for poor people were supposed to be conducted free of cost, which should have been recommended by any competent authority of the hospital. The document procured by us shows only 30 CT scans have been conducted instead of nearly 1,200, supposed to have been done free of cost during te the four years,” said Gurpreet Singh, a society activist.
As per the agreement, the hospital authorities were supposed to evaluate the data after every six months to check how many CT scans were done free of cost and, if the number exceeded the limit, expenses were to be borne out by the hospital.
“The number of total CT scans would surely go up as the information from September 2009 to January 2010, December 2010 to March 2011 and October 11 to March 2012, has been kept pending,” claimed Kultar Singh, vice-president of the society.
Gurpreet Singh, society president, had sought detailed information about CT scans from the hospital under the Right to Information Act, but was declined the information.Even the office of the principal of GGSMCH had declined the appeal in October 2013 by observing that the required information was not available in the record and could not be supplied.
“We had been crying foul for about two years that the deserving poor patients were not getting the free of cost CT scan facility. But the authorities did not supply us the required information under RTI,” claimed Gurpreet and Kultsar. Now the inquiry about the issue of CT scans is reportedly being conducted by the district vigilance bureau.
Shavinder Singh Gill, VC of Baba Farid university of health sciences, running the GGSMCH, said,” I have instructed the medical superintendent to ensure that the facility be provided to the deserving patients as per the agreement now.” On the alleged irregularities during previous years, he said that it was a very old agreement and I shall also look into it if something went wrong there.