South Central Railway hospital pays Rs 60 cr/year for patients’ pvt bills
HYDERABAD: Availing medical benefits is one of the many perks of being an employee of the Indian Railways (IR). In absence of suitable facilities at the IR hospital, patients are referred to private hospitals, with the bills paid entirely by the IR. However, no pockets are deep enough for private healthcare in India, especially not those of the South Central Railway.
Part of the largest public sector unit, SCR has incurred expenses worth a whopping Rs 234 crore by referring beneficiaries of its medical hospital to other private hospitals in city. As per an RTI query by citizen activist Robin Zaccheus, the SCR hospital in Lallaguda referred close to 80,000 of its beneficiaries between 2014 and 2018 to various private hospitals.
The RTI query highlights that the hospital was asked to pay bills amounting to an average of Rs 59.58 crore, annually, with the highest being in 2017-18 when it had to shell out Rs 62.26 crore to pay the bills of 21,830 persons.
The worrying aspect is that an increasing number of SCR employees are availing this benefit only to be referred to private hospitals, due to the government hospital’s lack of expertise and machinery. This has resulted in the number of beneficiaries surging by 5,281 between 2014 and 2018. This implies SCR is likely to incur additional burden in the coming days.
“Why can’t the SCR improve its infrastructure, diagnosis capabilities and the number of surgeries it can do instead of referring to private hospitals?” questions Robin. Explaining his experience, Robin recalled that his relative availed a medical benefit amounting to `9 lakh from the SCR back in 2015. “Though she died after her surgery in a private hospital, isn’t the amount too much for a public sector unit to pay?” he argued while adding that the capacity of the SCR hospital should be increased.
As per a 2017 circular, a beneficiary from the SCR hospital can submit bills even without a referral letter. This can lead to over utilisation of private hospitals at the cost of SCR hospital developing its medical expertise and expertise.
CAG says...
A 2014 report by Comptroller Audit General of IR hospitals noted that there were ‘deficiencies in supply of medicines’ and delay in obtaining medical equipments worth Rs 40 cr.