The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : ‘CGHS card is of no use’

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Friday, Mar 14, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

‘CGHS card is of no use’

I am a 66-year-old CGHS beneficiary (lifetime card No. 8683) attached to AG colony CGHS dispensary. On June 4, 2007 I was admitted, under emergency condition, at Apollo Hospital, Jubilee Hills, and underwent by-pass surgery. During the course of treatment doctors detected that I also had leukaemia. To control leukaemia, I underwent three cycles of chemotherapy between June and September 2007 in the same hospital.

During treatment when I approached CGHS with a request to refer me to Apollo hospitals for second cycle of chemotherapy, they referred me to NIMS. On seeing my medical history, the NIMS authorities advised me to continue treatment at Apollo Hospitals. I had to take this ‘advise’ again to CGHS, who in-turn referred my case back to Apollo hospital for further cycles of Chemotherapy.

Since September, 2007, I am visiting Apoll0o hospitals every month for blood examination and once in every three months for bone marrow aspiration. For these monthly and quarterly visits I am bearing the expenditure myself. This situation came because CGHS and speciality hospitals are yet to solve the issue of medical tariffs.

Being a pensioner, I am finding it difficult to arrange funds for my treatment. Because of no agreement between CGHS and speciality hospitals, I am paying the hospital charges from my own pocket. I do not have financial capacity to bear the expenditure, if this continues. My CGHS card is of no use. I request authorities to solve the problem amicably and save a few poor lives like me.

D. Subrahmanyam

Sanathnagar I am relating my own forgettable experience with CGHS Begumpet dispensary. Although I am not a beneficiary myself, I visited the dispensary to seek permission for my aged sister, who is a beneficiary (being a family member), for an estimated cost of Rs.1, 35,000, meant for a stent procedure of the heart.

I made sure that I had all the necessary documents with me before joining the long queue. There were nearly dozen beneficiaries, some of them old, waiting to meet the chief of CGHS Begumpet dispensary. We were asked to wait for ‘some time’, because the chief was busy with some other pressing matters. The ‘some time’ took a long time, as we waited for over two hours.

Meanwhile, one of the persons waiting with us, an old lady, had a fall while climbing the stairs in the dispensary. Apparently, she was a sugar patient and since it was lunch time, she had to eat something. She went to the CGHS canteen to have lunch. The canteen did not have anything to offer. While coming back to join the queue, she slipped on the stairs. Nobody came to help her out except for us. Finally, at one p.m. the chief of the dispensary came and with a contemptuous look on her face gave approval to our files.

However, by the time we received the chief’s approval, the typist had gone for lunch and came back at 2.30 p.m. to fill-up a two-line approval form for signature of the chief.

We took the approval form once again to the chief for her signatures and while signing the approval form, she kept on grumbling that she was holding additional charge and her work was piling up. This is the kind of ‘attitude’ we get, whenever we go to CGHS dispensary.

After getting the approval, I took my sister to NIMS hospital for the stent procedure. NIMS could not implant the stent for some reason and discharged my sister within two days. They said medication was good enough for her to recover.

In the past, my sister was getting treated at Yashoda Hospital but because the treatment facility at private hospitals was stopped, she suffered immensely by going to NIMS. The Central Government would do well in reviving this facility.

Suryanarayana Padmasola

ICRISAT Colony, Secunderabad

Trouble in CGHS started with the withdrawing of benefits, which were provided till recently. Another issue is the termination of the benefit of allowing beneficiaries to approach speciality hospitals for consultation as outpatients. This has led to an end to other facilities like diagnostic tests. Even if a patient consults a specialist doctor in a speciality hospital at his own costs, which varies from Rs.150 to Rs. 300, the drugs prescribed by the doctor are not supplied by the CGHS. The drugs prescribed by the specialist are substituted by other drugs.

Apart from all this, on paper, a beneficiary is permitted for treatment in speciality hospital only under ‘emergency’ situations. This means, the CGHS by design, has become only useful during “non emergency” situations.

Assuming that under certain circumstances the beneficiary gets treatment at speciality hospitals, it is amusing that CGHS does not recognise branches of speciality hospitals like CARE or Apollo at Secunderabad. The beneficiary must get treatment only at the main hospitals during emergency situations like heart attacks or a paralytic stroke. One can imagine the risk involved in reaching to the main hospitals during emergencies.

Granting that everything goes well, finally CGHS does not reimburse the amount claimed by the hospitals in full. They only sanction an amount designed by them. The CGHS dispensary, Begumpet, at any rate is callous in its functioning. There are no seating arrangements for the old and sick. Good many chairs are broken and left scattered at corners. Doctors in large number are always on leave. The staff at the dispensing counter are always late in attending and more often, unfriendly.

It is intriguing why parking fees for vehicles of those who attend the CGHS be collected. Should this be a source of income for CGHS?

B.R.C. Iyengar

Hyderabad We have paid ‘life time’ contribution for a CGHS card, which covers all our family members. However, because of the never-ending ‘official procedure’ and red-tape, we, despite paying for the card, are afraid of even entering the CGHS premises.

However, while obtaining the card, we were assured by the authorities that all facilities would be extended to us without any deficiency. The approach and behaviour of doctors, manning the CGHS dispensaries, towards the patients is deplorable, to say the least.

In fact, when the medical need is more after retirement, the pensioners are treated as if they are unwanted and unsolicited types.

They are being thrown to the mercy of Government hospitals, which are ill-equipped. Moreover, there is no need of a CGHS card in Government hospitals, because already the service is free of cost. Moreover, the quality and efficiency of medical services at Government hospitals is not on par with that of corporate hospitals.

The moot point is that whether it’s constitutionally correct on the part of CGHS authorities to rob beneficiaries from medical facilities, which were available till recently. They gave us the CGHS lifetime card promising to provide services at all speciality hospitals. Now, they are not fulfilling the promise. The judiciary should examine this situation and take action suo moto.

G. Anuradha

Shalivahana Nagar

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