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Rollback on `user charges' yet to materialise

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Institute Body at its meeting on July 5 had decided to withdraw the charges

NEW DELHI: Nearly a week after the Institute Body of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here announced a rollback of the increase in "user charges" for various medical procedures and investigations, the benefits are yet to be passed on to the patients.

The Institute Body at its meeting on July 5 had decided to withdraw user charges in accordance with the wishes of a majority of its members. However, AIIMS Medical Superintendent D. K. Sharma on Tuesday said he was yet to get the minutes of the meeting or any other official intimation on the matter.

"Only after I get the minutes of the meeting will a notification be issued for withdrawal of the hiked user charges. The minutes would be directed to either me or the financial department for further orders and till then the previous charges would continue," said Dr. Sharma.

Speaking about the delay in passing on the benefits of the rollback to the patients, a senior faculty member said: "The Director seems to be busy settling scores with the Health Ministry and has shown no hurry in accelerating the process of passing on the benefits of the decision to several thousand patients coming to the Institute's out patient department everyday."

"`When the proposal for an increase in user charges was passed several months ago, the AIIMS administration pushed it through without any discussion with providers of health care, including the faculty and residents," he added.

In the past, senior faculty members had in a petition to Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss sought withdrawal of the hiked user charges claiming that it was against the spirit of AIIMS and that it would deprive more than 80 per cent of the patients of tertiary care at AIIMS as well as send a wrong message about the character of government-funded hospitals.

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