Punjab: Aam Aadmi Clinic doctor gets termination notice for inflating patient count

Barnala civil surgeon issues termination notices to Ugoke Aam Aadmi Clinic medical officer, pharmacist and assistant for registering fake patients to get incentives

Barnala civil surgeon Dr Jasbir Singh on Wednesday issued termination notices to a medical officer, a pharmacist and an assistant of the Aam Aadmi Clinic at Ugoke for registering fake patients to get incentives.

The Punjab government has hired doctors for its flagship project, Aam Aadmi Clinic, on the basis of incentives. They are given ₹50 per patient. (HT file photo)

The Punjab government has hired doctors for its flagship project, Aam Aadmi Clinic, on the basis of incentives. They are given ₹50 per patient, while a pharmacist gets ₹12 and clinical assistant gets ₹10 per patient.

The local health department found that the doctor had registered 134 fake patients to get more incentives.

The civil surgeon stated in the notice that medical officer Dr Kanwar Navjot Singh Ghuman registered fake patients on April 6, 11, 12 and 13 to get high incentives.

The other employees are pharmacist Kubair Singh and assistant Manpreet Kaur. They were working in connivance with the medical officer.

“According to the report of the medical officer, 96, 104, 45 and 64 patients visited the outpatient department (OPD) on April 6, 11, 12 and 13, respectively, while the report of the senior medical officer showed that the actual number of patients were 57, 61, 26 and 31, respectively,” the civil surgeon said.

Meanwhile, the medical officer, pharmacist and clinical assistant have filed an appeal for another probe into the allegations.

The state health department had recently directed local health officials to visit clinics where daily OPD footfall is above 100.