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Fleecing of patients raises hackles
Gidderbaha Civil Hospital
AISSF miffed over commuting of riot convict’s sentence
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Office-bearers elected
Senior PPP leader Jeeda cremated
Girl raped
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Fleecing of patients raises hackles
Faridkot, February 13 Besides the health department, medical university, civil and police officials and some chemists have also been included in the committee to check the fleecing. The preliminary study of unethical practice in the sale of essential drugs to the patients revealed that the cost of manufacturing many drugs is relatively low, compared to the price these are sold at, said Ravi Bhagat, DC, Faridkot. By selling drugs at inflated prices, some pharmaceutical companies and retailers pocket a large share of the money paid by the patient, he said. "Hence forth, whenever we get a complaint of exorbitant prices being charged for a medicine, necessary legal action would be taken against the accused chemist," said Bhagat. Dr Shiv Dutta Gupta, president, Indian Medical Association (IMA) Punjab, blamed the faulty drug policy for the cheating of patients. "As a common man, I feel cheated and as a doctor, I blame the government for this faulty drug policy which is promoting a nexus between drug companies, stockists and retailers which disproportionately inflates the cost of medicines and the overall treatment," he said. The IMA has many times raised the issue with the union government to regulate the drug prices. "Now, we are planning to move the court to keep check on this arbitrary selling price (MRP) of drugs," said Dr Shiv Dutta Gupta. The ripping off of the patients is more glaring because of the medical profession being highly mystified for a layman, said Dr Amar Singh Azad, a senior social and preventive medicine expert and a renowned paediatrician. As the medical prescriptions written by a doctor are illegible for an ordinary person, so it increases the chances of being swindled, he said. The reality is that the same salt is being marketed by different companies under different brand names but the selling price varies even ten times than its cost price, which means 1000 per cent profit is reaped, said Dr Azad. For example, if a doctor has to treat a patient of blood cancer, he may advice the salt Imatinib by various brand names. If he has prescribed brand Glivec, a month's course will cost Rs 1,14,400 to the patient. Whereas the same anti-cancer drug, but with a different brand name, Veenat, costs just Rs 11,400. And Cipla supplies the generic equivalent of this drug (@-imitib) for Rs 8,000 only. Also, Gelnmark supplies it for Rs 5,720. All these brands contain the same salt Imatinib, in the same quantity, conform to the same quality standards and are equally effective. |
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Gidderbaha Civil Hospital
Muktsar, February 13 Demanding their salary for the past few months, the agitating health staff kept the whole services, including the OPD, suspended. However, the emergency services continued and remained unaffected. The hospital staff alleged that the authorities concerned had totally failed to provide them salaries on time. “We are working without salary for the last four months. We have complained a number of times to the higher-ups, but nobody is paying any attention in this regard,” said Dr Rajinder, one of the protesters. "The Civil Surgeon, Muktsar, is aware of the facts and has assured us a number of times of grievance redressal but the situation is still the same,” he said. The protesters further alleged that the hospital clerk, who had to release the salary, was not behaving properly with the staff. “Whenever we go to him to ask about the budget, so that we can get our salary, he does not speak properly. He has also misbehaved with some female employees of the hospital," said Dr Rajinder, while demanding the immediate transfer of the clerk. When contacted, Dr Gurdeep Singh, Civil Surgeon, Muktsar, said, “I assure that everyone will get the salary on time in future and the backlog will also be cleared soon. There may be some fault of miscalculation, that’s why the salaries were delayed. Otherwise, there was no issue involved." |
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AISSF miffed over commuting of riot convict’s sentence
Moga, February 13 Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad, president of the AISSF, told The Tribune that the Lieutenant Governor Tejinder Khanna of Delhi has commuted the life sentence of Kishori Lal on the recommendation of Sentence Review Board of the Delhi government. Peer Mohammad claimed that Kishori Lal was sentenced to death seven times by the trial courts after having been found guilty of killing many Sikhs in the riots. However, the Supreme Court, later, commuted his death sentence to life term. The jail authorities recommended his case to the SRB observing his good conduct in the jail. After the Governor's nod, Kishori Lal needs to furnish a surety and personal bond of Rs 10,000 for getting released from the jail. Peer Mohammad said that after consulting the legal experts, the AISSF would take the plea in the PIL that commutation and release of Kishori Lal, including three brothers - Darshan Singh, Amar Singh and Nirmal Singh, all residents of Trilokpuri, would pose a threat to the safety of the witnesses who testified against him in the trial courts. Adding that the decision of the Delhi government ‘is another injustice to the victims of the massacre’, he said, ‘the sentence is being commuted at time when the victims are still fighting against the clean chit given to Jagdish Tytler and are making efforts to get Sajjan Kumar convicted by the court’. Referring to the denial of Devinder Pal Bhullar's commutation of death sentence, Peer Mohammad stated, “The killers of Sikhs are being granted commutation while the innocent Sikhs are denied justice and this undermines the victims’ faith in the justice system.” Meanwhile, in a separate statement issued from California, Mohinder Singh who saw his father Darshan Singh, a resident of 32/7 Trilokpuri in November 1984 being killed by Kishori Lal, stated that “commutation of Kishori Lal’s sentence is bitter injustice”. Mohinder Singh is one of the plaintiffs against Congress leaders and union minister Kamal Nath in the November 1984 Sikh genocide case filed by “Sikhs for Justice”, a human rights advocacy group, which is pending before a US federal court. |
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Bathinda, February 13 Following were elected the office-bearers: Pushpinder S Sandhu (president), Shamsher Singh (vice-president), Love Sachdeva (vice-president), Hardeep Sidhana (vice-president), Rajinder Singla (unit secretary), Anil Bansal (joint secretary), Ashwani Sharma (joint secretary), Lalit Arora (joint secretary), Harmeet S Sidhu (press secretary), Ashwani Goyal (treasurer), Rajinder Gadgill and Anil Garg as the co-treasurers. — TNS |
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Senior PPP leader Jeeda cremated
Bathinda, February 13 Jeeda who was suffering from liver cancer, died yesterday. The cremation ceremony was attended among others by Faridkot MP Paramjit Kaur Gulshan, former CPI MLA Hardev Singh Arshi, PPP candidate from Bathinda (Urban) Assembly constituency Sukhdeep Singh Bhinder and president of District Bar Association Rajan Garg. Preet Kanwar Singh said the bhog ceremony of his father would be held on February 19 (Sunday) at the Gurdwara Civil Station here. |
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Muktsar, February 13 The girl alleged that Kaka had promised to marry her, but he was already married. “Though the allegations are yet to be verified, the police has registered a case against Kaka, who is at large, said police. —
TNS
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Medical services in the Civil Hospital at Gidderbaha were affected today due to the day-long strike observed by the doctors, paramedical staff and the class IV employees.
