*Private players looting poor patients by charging hefty amount
Govind Sharma
JAMMU, Mar 13: Shocking it may sound but it is a fact that Government Medical College and Hospital, Jammu, which was established in 1973, is having only one critical care ambulance (CCA).
This ambulance either remains non-functional or is used only to oblige patients of ministers or bureaucrats while the poor patients have to depend on private ambulances, which charge them excessively taking advantage of the circumstances.
According to the sources in the hospital, a nexus between officials of GMCH and owners of critical care ambulances is going on for last many years and it has expanded its roots so deep that hospital administration never thought of having its own fleet of critical care ambulances.
They said a critical care ambulance was also donated few years ago by an organization but it is now being used as a hearse, as all its essential equipments like ventilator have been either removed or become defunct.
Sources said being blessed by the hospital administration, owners of these critical care ambulances are publicly looting the poor patients by charging a hefty amount for shifting them in other hospitals of the State in case of medical emergencies. “Moreover, these private players have now formed a self styled unnamed union and fixed rates for various destinations, which are too high to afford for the poor people. For example, to shift a patient to Delhi they charge Rs 48000, for Chandigarh Rs 38000, for Ludhiana Rs 30000 and for Amritsar Rs 25000”, they said.
“Moreover, life support system like ventilators, oxygen source and other equipments, which are essential requirements are either missing or defunct in these CCAs but there is no body to inspect and check these essential vehicles”, sources said adding besides this an MBBS doctor and a trained paramedic must follow the patient in the CCA while being shifted from one destination to other but putting the life of the patients on stake the owners of these CCAs prefer to take either an Ayurvedic doctor, a non-degree holder medical student or a paramedic with the patient to save the money, as a result many critical patients succumb on the way due to the criminal negligence of owners of these CCAs.
“What is more shocking is that the hospital officials like paramedics and many technicians just for the sake of their commission, which is about 10% of the total charged money, misguide the patients’ attendants and convince them that their patient could not get proper treatment here and they should take them to some other hospital outside the State”, they alleged, adding that this move of some vested interests in the hospital is bringing bad name for the institution.
The sources said that about 10-12 private CCAs and many other ambulances always remain parked without any hindrance in front of new Emergency of the hospital occupying a large space while there stands no such permission extended to them by the authorities. “What is more astonishing is the fact that the police officials who are supposed to check the illegal parking of these CCAs can be seen gossiping with the owners of these vehicles”, they added.
“My old father, who had received serious internal as well as external head injuries in a road mishap, died here in GMCH due to high-handedness of the owners of these CCAs, who were demanding Rs 38000 for shifting him to a hospital in Chandigarh, which I could not afford being a labourer”, one Roshan Lal told Excelsior.
To verify the facts, this Excelsior correspondent visited the spot and talked to many people, which confirmed that a racket of some vested interests in the hospital and owners of private CCAs is being run due to which poor patients are suffering badly.
When contacted Principal, GMCH Jammu, Dr Zahid Geelani, said that the issue of lack of CCAs and exploitation by the private players is in his notice and they have taken up the matter with high authorities. He further said that they have also taken up the matter with J&K Bank, which has agreed to provide four such ambulances to the Medical College under its Corporate Social Responsibility scheme. However, trashing the claim of the GMCH Principal, highly placed sources in the J&K Bank told Excelsior that they will be providing only normal ambulances to the Medical College and not any CCA.
On illegal parking of these private ambulances in the hospital premises, Dr Geelani said, “They have not given any parking space to these private ambulances. They are allowed only to enter the hospital premises either to lift or drop the patient and leave immediately but if these vehicles are being parked in the hospital premises, we will take up the matter with concerned police post, as we have already asked them not to allow parking of any private ambulance in hospital premises”.
Regarding fixation of rates of these CCAs for various destinations, RTO Jammu, Ashwani Sharma, said till now there is no role of the department in fixation of rates of these CCAs but after numerous complaints of these private CCA owners exploiting the poor people, the department is mooting to fix their rates and hopefully within a month or two some decision will be taken on this serious issue, as various meetings have already been held in this regard.
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