In a faux pas, BJP promotes 2006 scheme for BPL families as saffron party’s

In south central Mumbai a Bharatiya Janata Party BJP politician has been promoting a state government scheme from 2006 which provides treatment to Below Poverty Line BPL individuals for free or discounted rates at charitable trust hospitals as his partyrsquos initiative for all residents in the area through small blackboardsThese signs have been set up at around 15 locationsVasantrao Jadhav BJPrsquos state executive committee member and former vicepresident of the partyrsquos city unit however claimed that in November large hoardings had been put outside some of the major private hospitals in the area that had all details with complete transparency However midday could only access the digital copy of that hoarding as it had been taken down by the BMC in November itself ldquoWe started using small blackboards that can only accommodate a few details So we decided to only talk of free treatment available and provided the names of a few major hospitalsrdquo Jadhav claimedThe names of the hospital mentioned on the board are Hinduja Raheja Dhanvantari Somaiya Hospital Sushil Ben Mehta Seth RV Ayurved Sushrut Surana Inlaks Tarachand Bappa Wadia Bacchu Ali Jain Centre Dadar Manav Seva Centre and Lions Club of East MumbaiHowever his earlier hoarding included a picture of the leader alongside pictures of Narendra Modi Amit Shah J P Nadda Eknath Shinde Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar There were also pictures of local party workers with their contact numbers in case citizens wished to reach out for helpWhat prompted promotionAsked if he was doing this as elections were around the corner Jadhav denied it and said he had been helping people avail themselves of this scheme for a while now ldquoBut hospitals were not always cooperative I looked into the rules carefully this time and only then decided to advertise itrdquo he saidAccording to the Bombay Public Trusts BPT Act 1950 charitable trusts operating hospitals nursing homes or maternity homes are required to contribute two per cent of their income to the Indigent Patient Fund IPF This constitutes a quidproquo arrangement wherein medical institutions run by these trusts offer free or subsidised treatment to BPL patients in return for substantial government subsidies on land taxes electricity and building regulationsTen per cent of charitable hospitalsrsquo total operational beds are for indigent patients with free treatment An additional 10 per cent of total operational beds at such hospitals are at concessional rates for other economically weaker sectionsHowever hospitals take all possible steps to ensure that as few people as possible receive the benefits of this ldquoPatients are tossed around the public relations department of the hospital They are quizzed and questioned at a time of an emergency and hospitals either do not provide free treatment or do not provide subsidies proportionate to the income In the worst case they simply deny bothrdquo he saidIn reality the scheme can be availed of by producing any one of these documents a certificate from tehsildar or a rationBPL cardTerrible experiencesThe experience that Jadhav talks about is not uncommon Since November 150 people have approached him for help He has been able to intervene in about 40 cases to twist hospitalsrsquo arms into considering them for the schemeEighteenyearold Gangarsquos name changed mother has been in Raheja hospital due to kidney problems since November ldquoConvincing any of these private hospitals that you are eligible for the scheme is very difficult Before admitting my mother I had started doing rounds of political party offices for help but none of them agreedrdquo she saidAt Raheja hospital she was told that she could not avail the benefits of the scheme despite producing all the documents because she had Mediclaim insurance too ldquoI stepped out of the hospital after this conversation and it was just by luck that I ran into Jadhav sir as the hoarding there was being installedrdquo she said He accompanied her to the hospital and produced the rules under the law for free or subsidised treatment Now Ganga said the hospital has not asked for a single rupee so farDinesh Morersquos father had to be admitted to PD Hinduja hospital but the institution kept asking him to pay a hefty deposit amount He had rushed his father to the hospital in an emergency ldquoI told them I would pay but they would not listen I also told them I had applied for the scheme and it should be sanctioned shortly but they would not cooperaterdquo he saidLongdrawn processThe application under this scheme is a longdrawn process which can sometimes even take a month for approval ldquoWithout support from a political person no common man who is eligible for this scheme can avail of the benefit At times hospitalsrsquo PR department asks such questions that one feels like they are quizzed by the CBI I was also told that my ration card is outdated by them even as it was still in userdquo More saidHe was asked in the hospital why he admitted his father there if he could not afford it ldquoThe treatment cost was quoted as Rs 185 lakh to Rs 195 lakh and once the politician intervened and got me approved I had to pay Rs 70000 That was coincidentally the deposit I was asked to pay and it came down to Rs 30000 as a result of being eligiblerdquo More said His father was later diagnosed with malaria and discharged in seven daysAt Bhatia hospital Umesh Gupta said the hospital would just not proceed before he paid 50 per cent of the treatment amountmdashR2 lakh This was in late November his father was discharged from the hospital after December 20 ldquoWe had produced all the income proof They kept insisting that they could only provide treatment at less than 50 per cent of the costrdquo he said His final bill was R7 lakh but he had to pay only R1 lakh eventually ldquoAll because a politician was involvedrdquo he said adding that he suspects the hospital kept him on a ventilator when it was not neededldquoThey refused to even provide us with our test reports and other medical reports while he was admitted so we could not even take a second opinionrdquo he said Even after being discharged his father who had broken a bone in his lower back struggles to speak Meanwhile all patients said there was a lack of awareness about this scheme even within hospitals ldquoInformation about this scheme within the hospital is pasted on a paper but in such small font that not many would even think of reading itrdquo Jadhav saidThis was confirmed by all the patientsmidday reached out to all hospitals concerned but did not receive a response from any15No of spots where boards are set up150No of people who approached Jadhav since NovemberPlaces where blackboards were placedNear Dadar police station on Veer Savarkar Road opposite Shivaji Park and Chaityabhoomi near the Portuguese church in Dadar at TH Kataria Marg in Mahim opposite Ganga Vihar restaurant near Yashwant Natya Mandir in Matunga at Satyawadi in Prabhadevi near a crematorium on MTNL Lane in Dadar and at Shaitan Chowkie near Dadar police station