Private ambulances outside Patna Medical College and Hospital. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, May 6: One can find a large number of private ambulances waiting outside Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) round-the-clock. These vehicles do not ferry critical patients to the health hub. Instead, they assist attendants rush patients to private nursing homes.

Sources said Grade IV employees, who work on a contractual basis with PMCH, operate the flourishing ambulance “business”.

“Trolley men and security guards, who work here on contract basis buy these ambulances as it’s very easy to get loans for such vehicles. Then, the ambulances, parked on the hospital premises, are used to transport patients to private nursing homes,” said a source.

He added: “The business is so lucrative that you can find more than 50 ambulances parked on the PMCH premises at any point of time. The touts attached with them are always on the prowl for patients.”

When The Telegraph team visited the PMCH and tried to figure out the economics of the “business”, it found that for every patient shifted from the health hub to a nursing home, the touts earn between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000 as commission from the private clinic. The PMCH administration, however, conducts no check on this practice.

Sources said nursing homes in the vicinity of PMCH encourage this practice and pay the touts commission to bring patients to them.

“As patients and their relatives enter the PMCH campus, the touts accost them and try to convince them to go to private nursing homes. They claim that the quality of treatment at PMCH is not up to the mark,” said Poorab Mahato, who has been present on the PMCH campus for the past 10 days, attending to his ailing wife.

He added: “The touts often pick up the belongings of the hapless patients and rush off to the ambulances, even as the patients’ attendants stand confused about what to do. The relatives of patients who have already been admitted are also harassed. They are often told that the quality of healthcare at the private nursing homes is far better than at PMCH.”

He added that in more than 50 per cent of the cases, the touts succeed in convincing the patients and their relatives and often force the patients into ambulances even before their attendants can understand anything.

Doctors in PMCH admitted that the ambulance “business” has turned into a menace. “The poor and uneducated patients are often fleeced by the ambulance agents and touts. Every empty spot on the hospital campus is full of private ambulances. The situation is so bad that we don’t get space to park our vehicles,” said a junior doctor in the emergency ward.

He added that till a few years back, no private ambulance was allowed to enter the hospital premises and situation was not this bad.

Senior officials in the hospital administration, meanwhile, struggled to explain their stand.