After Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the “Mohalla Clinics ‘scam’, Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the health secretary should be the one who should be held “responsible” for the “sub-standard medicines” being supplied in Delhi government hospitals and the alleged scam at mohalla clinics.
However, he said, nothing has been done about it.
“Why not suspend the health secretary? What are you waiting for? These people (senior officials) have been deployed by them (LG and BJP government at Centre) only,” he said.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor has recommended a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)into an alleged scam of fake lab tests and ghost patients at Delhi’s mohalla clinics that are run by the state government, reports The Indian Express.
Speaking to reporters, Bharadwaj said, “As far as the health department is concerned, or mohalla clinics, drugs, and whether the standard is good or not, or if anyone is entering phone number or entering random digits, or some wrong number (at mohalla clinics), this has to be checked by officials, and they have a DGHS above and above that health secretary is there.”
It is their job to do “random checks” at their level, the minister said.
“Who has appointed the DGHS? not us. Who has appointed the health secretary? not us. Who has chosen them, you all know. People chosen by them (for these posts) are committing wrong things. And, they themselves are probing it.
“So, they are probing people appointed by them only, and not probing us. We have given it in writing that they be removed,” he added.
According to the L-G office, lakhs of fake pathology and radiology tests were allegedly conducted on non-existent patients at the Mohalla Clinics and payments were made to private companies.
The L-G also ordered a CBI probe into the alleged supply of drugs to Delhi government hospitals that failed “quality standard tests”.
Officials said that “grave” fraudulent practices are prevalent in the lab tests, which is indicative of a “scam” running in hundreds of crores. Saxena issued the directions while clearing a file pertaining to the extension of lab testing services to private parties for patients visiting Mohalla clinics and Delhi hospitals in December 2022, according to the official, as reported by PTI.
The vigilance and state health departments at the Mohalla Clinics conducted an inquiry, and according to the report that was shared with the L-G’s office, fake and non-existent mobile numbers were used to register patients and subsequent lab tests were allegedly done on them.
“The data has clearly revealed that fake lab tests were carried out at these Mohalla Clinics that need to be further inquired,” an official from the L-G’s office said.
According to the inquiry report, there were 3,092 records of different patients with the same mobile number — 9999999999 — while in the case of 999 patients, their mobile numbers were repeated 15 or more times. Similarly, a total of 11,657 patients had the mobile number zero registered against their names while in the case of 8,251 patients, the mobile number column was left blank. As many as 400 patients had a single-digit phone number, the report found.
In August last year, it was found that some doctors and staff of seven mohalla clinics in southwest, Shahdara and North-East districts resorted to “unethical practice” to fraudulently mark their attendance through pre-recorded videos. These mohalla clinics were in Jaffar Kalan, Ujwa, Shikarpur, Gopal Nagar, Dhansa, Jagjeet Nagar and Bihari Colony, according to the official.
In September 2023, action was taken against the staff and they were de-empanelled and subsequently FIRs were lodged against them.
(With PTI inputs)