Now, a rabies ‘scam’

Delhi government hospitals spent Rs 4.3 crore on rabies vaccines in one year. The health department has initiated an inquiry into the expenditure, fearing a scam, reports Jaya Shroff Bhalla.

Delhi government hospitals spent Rs 4.3 crore on rabies vaccines in one year. The health department has initiated an inquiry into the expenditure, fearing a scam.

Health Minister Kiran Walia has called for a detailed report into the expenditure from medical superintendents.

“The expenditure on rabies vaccine alone was 12.25 per cent of the annual Rs 35 crore medicine budget for the 28 smaller Delhi government-run hospitals,” said Walia.

“If one were to believe the authenticity of this expenditure, it implies that an average of 205 people were given vaccines every day by our 28 smaller hospitals. This figure is grossly overrated, and we need to fix responsibility,” she said.

The hospitals in question do not include the government’s five major hospitals — Lok Nayak and G.B. Pant near Delhi Gate, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Baba Sahab Ambedkar in west Delhi and Guru Tegh Bahadur in east Delhi.

These five hospitals together cater to approximately 75 per cent of the Delhi government hospitals’ overall patient load.

Even if the government goes by Municipal Corporation of Delhi figures, the average dog bite complaint is about 40 a day.

If we go by the expenditure on the anti-rabies vaccines by the smaller Delhi government hospitals, the figures should have been at least five times more.

“I have initiated an inquiry into this and have also called a meeting of medical superintendents of our major hospitals,” said the minister.

The department has also noticed that intra-muscular anti-rabies vaccines, which cost Rs 260 each and are to be taken in three doses after a dog bite, are five times more expensive than intra-dermal anti-rabies vaccine.

“I don’t see any reason why the purchasers were ordering expensive vaccines when there was a cost effective and an equally 100 per cent safe alternative available,” said Walia.

As a policy decision, the department has placed fresh orders of anti-dermal vaccines for the next year, which they hope will bring down the expenses by almost Rs 3 crore.