2 US Nagar-based hospitals under Atal Ayushman scanner

Dehradun: In a case of gross violation of norms, a doctor employed with one of the government hospital in US Nagar is accused of referring patients to a private hospital for treatment under Atal Ayushman Scheme. It was found that the accused government doctor was also working with private hospital on full time basis.

In another case, a private hospital’s owner has been charged of forgery by giving wrong information to the health department to get his hospital empaneled with theAtal Ayushman Scheme.

Both the hospitals were issued notices for irregularities under Atal Ayushman scheme on Monday. The hospitals have to revert with their explanations on the alleged irregularities within 15 days after.

Abhishek Tripathi, director Atal Ayushman Scheme (Uttarakhand) told TOI that a private hospital situated near tehsil road in US Nagar has showed the name of a government doctor’s name as orthopaedic specialist working in their hospital which is ethically wrong.

“Further investigations revealed that the same government doctor use to refer patients from government hospital to that private hospital and use to treat them there. The total amount claimed by the private hospital for treatment of patients by that government doctors was around Rs 11 lakhs,” said Tripathi.

He added that the accused hospital performed over 80 surgeries without pre-approval, as per the guidelines of the Atal Ayushman Scheme. In seven cases, the cases of general medicine were treated by surgeons in the hospital which again is unethical. The same hospital is also accused of making forge bills to claim money from the government under same scheme. The government has already paid claims of Rs 5.50 lakh to this hospital while around 12 lakh of claimed is pending.

“In another case, a private hospital in Siddique market of US Nagar was found forging the records of specialists. The hospital claimed itself to have 24X7 emergency services while just one doctor is employed here who is also the owner and it is not possible for a single person to run 24 hour emergency services,” said Tripathi adding that the second hospital is also accused of forging medical history of patients and performing surgeries without pre-approval.

“We have found that hospital accepted 47 patients referred by a Anurag Rawat, a pharmacist of a PHC in US Nagar who is already booked under 420, 467 and 468 sections of IPC for unethically referring patients to private hospitals,” he added.