HYDERABAD: Acute shortage of doctors and medicines and other infrastructure shortcomings at the Wellness Centres in the city force Employee Health Scheme beneficiaries to wait for days to avail medical services.
Patients also allege that they are being referred to hospitals of their doctor’s interest though they are entitled to go to the hospitals of their choice.
A large number of patients not only from Hyderabad but also from other parts of the state come for treatment under the medical reimbursement scheme. For treatment, at least 100 to 150 patients approach the EHS centres daily. However, lack of facilities, shortage of drugs and other issues have degraded the service quality considerably. N Lakshmi, an EHS beneficiary, said that she had been suffering from chest pain for the last few days and consulted a private hospital.
“The doctors at the private hospital discovered that I had a blockage in one part of my heart.
I approached an EHS centre where I underwent a few tests like electro-cardiography. It has been three days and they have not yet given any report so far on the test results,” she said and also alleged that there were no cardio-specialist doctors at the said EHS centre. “Moreover, we need to take a permission letter from the EHS Wellness Centre to get treatment at other centres and claim reimbursement. Doctors at the EHS centres invariably delay issuing such a letter,” she complained. When contacted, M Vijay, joint executive officer of EHS Wellness Centre, admitted to delay in giving test reports by the Centre.
“The samples we collect from patients are being sent to government hospital labs for tests. Those labs, in turn, claim that the reports are delayed because their servers are overloaded. We conducted a meeting with government hospital officials to solve the issues.
We have decided to instal new lab equipment at the centre and a proposal in this regard has been sent to the state government,” he said.
On the complaint that doctors at the centre are advising patients to go to certain hospitals, Vijay said, “Doctors at the EHS Wellness Centres do not have the right to advise patients to go to a specific hospital for treatment. We will conduct an inquiry and take serious action against them if they are found guilty,” he said.