E-Paper
Health Dept errs, pvt hospitals rake in the moolah
THE HEALTH Department?s failure to meet the target of cataract operations under the National Blindness Eradication Programme is helping the private hospitals earn a hefty sum from patients.
THE HEALTH Department’s failure to meet the target of cataract operations under the National Blindness Eradication Programme is helping the private hospitals earn a hefty sum from patients.
The facts and figures available at the Health Department speak volumes in this regard. Although the Health Department is supposed to conduct 60 per cent cataract operations through government agencies and 40 per cent through private parties, it achieved only 45 per cent of the target.
Till February 28, against the target of 20,659 cases, the department could conduct only 12,814 operations through Intra Ocular Lens (IOL) method and 5,472 through general surgery by the end of 2005-06 fiscal.
However, 8,319 operations were performed by some private parties and 7,626 cases were taken care of by 21 NGOs. At the Community Health Centres and the Primary Health Centres, only 900 and 458 operations were conducted, respectively.
Similarly, in the city, at the LLR Hospital of the GSVM Medical College, only 367 operations were conducted. The UHM Hospital registered 470 operations and the KPM Hospital 46.
Some senior eye-surgeons said that if the camps were conducted by government hospitals, and operations were performed by government doctors, they would not get Rs 750 or Rs 500 per case. Thus, they were not keen to take part in the programme, they said.
The lacunae in the government policy helped private doctors earn hefty sum under this programme. They are earning money from the government and the patients by organising eye camps. The patients, who reach the camp, are asked to come to the main hospital for treatment. There, they are told about various methods of eye surgery.
One of such methods is PHACO surgery. A patient, under this method, needs to undergo a minor incision which costs him or her over Rs 7,000.
As per the government norms, payment is made to private hospitals and NGOs for Intra Ocular Lens implant surgery (IOL) Rs 750 per case and Rs 500 for general surgery but not for PHACO technique.
The experts said that there was no difference between PHACO and IOL methods of surgery. Since the PHACO method was costlier than the two others, the patients were forced to bear the extra expenses, they said.
Besides, charging Rs 7,000 for PHACO technique from patients, the private hospitals are charging Rs 1800 for general surgery and Rs 5000 for IOL.
The number of operations conducted by private hospitals does not match with the statistics maintained by the office of the chief medical officer. Data collected from a private hospital in Swaroop Nagar states that from April 1, 2005 to February 28, 2006, it had conducted 1,668 cataract operations with IOL and PHACO technology. Besides, they conducted three operations through traditional method.
The health department records tell that in the same hospital in the same period 1,550 IOL and six general operations were conducted. The health department has no data about the operations being conducted through PHACO technique.
The operations at various camps are being done by a trained eye specialist. But doctors with plain MBBS degree were sent to verify that whether the operations were conducted through IOL, PHACO or general surgery.
The records available at the CMO office state that only one eye-surgeon was asked to render his services that too in a few camps. To add to it, out of the list of 21 NGOs, who have conducted several camps and operations in and around the city, the health department officials have clue about a few NGOs.
When Chief Medical Officer Dr Vijay Shankar Singh was asked to comment on the NGOs listed at his office, he said that he was not acquainted with most names.
Commenting on the foul play under National Blindness Control Programme the CMO said, “I will take strict action if any complaint is received in this regard.”
The private hospitals and some NGOs failed to provide any information regarding the addresses of the patients who were operated upon. However, some private hospitals gave names of a few patients who paid Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000 to them for operations.
