Angul: In a breach of regulation, drivers of Angul district headquarters hospital (DHH) have been accused of using transporting referral patients to private nursing homes. The regulation clearly mandates that the government ambulances can only ferry patients to government hospitals.
There have been a number of instances, wherein patients were referred to Cuttack based SCB Medical College and Hospital by doctors of this DHH. The drivers, however, instead of taking the patients to the referred destination emotionally blackmailed them to approach private nursing homes.
There are middlemen in this trade who work in tandem with the drivers. They earn commission when private nursing homes get new patients, it is alleged.
Even though such incidents are a commonplace here, the hospital authorities have taken no concrete action to stop this.
“There are a total five ambulances in Angul district headquarters hospital. Four of them small ones and the rest a bigger one. Pretty much each of these vehicles are used to ferry patients to private nursing homes,” alleged a hospital official on the condition of anonymity.
To validate the claim the official added that the ambulance bearing registration number OD19L 2286 had taken a patient to a particular nursing home May 25. Similarly, another ambulance with the registration number OD15J 1655 was used to shift a patient to the same nursing home May 31.
When asked on this subject, Angul chief district medical officer (CDMO) Pratap Kumar Behera pleaded ignorance and said that he would take action after an investigation.