Shiromani Akali Dal on Wednesday blamed the Congress-led Punjab Government of deceiving 46 lakh families by capping the treatment of 124 diseases only at government health centers under its Sarbat Health Insurance Scheme launched a day before.
Termed the State Government’s health insurance scheme as “the biggest fraud played on 46 lakh families of the state”, SAD senior vice president Daljit Singh Cheema said that the beneficiaries were deceived by the government with its “ill-conceived” order of providing the treatment of 124 major diseases only at the government health centers.
“The people of the state as well as the State Government are well aware of the fact that except a few medical colleges and hospitals situated in big cities, the standard of medical care facilities being provided at the government hospitals across the state is not considered satisfactory as these health centers are battling with acute shortage of faculty, para-medical staff as well as basic infrastructure,” he said.
Cheema said that the government has completely left the patients of 124 major ailments at the mercy of these ill-equipped health care centers, besides making this insurance scheme useless for the poor patients who were eagerly waiting to get free quality health care services.
Despite the fact that the people avoid going to government hospitals even for the minor surgeries, the government wants to see people treating themselves in the government healthcare centers for every ailment including high-risk delivery, cesarean section and removal of uterus, he said.
SAD leader said that it was strange that the government has earmarked the government hospitals for treating the mental disorder cases when it was a well-known fact that the government does not have enough number of doctors in its neurosciences department to tackle the drug addiction problem in the state.
Cheema said that the Government has authorized only 250 government-run hospitals for treating around 46 lakh people of their 124 diseases which is not fair.
“Although, the amount being provided under Bhagat Puran Singh Insurance scheme was Rs 50,000 during the erstwhile SAD-BJP government, patients had freedom to go to any hospital listed in the panel for better treatment,” he said adding that now patients have to go through a lot of mental and physical harassment to get doctor’s referral for getting treated at private hospitals, besides doctors would hesitate to give it in writing that their hospitals were not medically well equipped.
Cheema demanded that the Punjab Government should immediately remove the condition of seeking doctor’s referral for shifting the patient from government hospital to private hospital so that patients could get better and hassle-free treatment from their choice of health care centers.