Health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey (right) addresses the news meet in Patna on Wednesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

The government is planning to keep a track of patients being taken away to private hospitals and nursing homes by touts and agents after being admitted to state-run health hubs.

Announcing this at a news meet in the capital on Wednesday, health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey said steps were being taken in view of several complaints received by the department that many doctors were involved in such unscrupulous practices.

“If any doctor is found involved in such cases, we will initiate action against him or her,” he added.

The minister said several dignitaries, including Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, are expected to participate in the closing ceremony of this year’s Jan Swasthya Chetna Yatra from April 28 to April 29 in Bhagalpur.

“For three months, the department has been organising thousands of health camps at every level of government hospital. This year’s mega campaign will come to an end later this week. We have invited health ministers of all the states, apart from doctors of national and international repute, to the function,” Choubey said, claiming that the event that began on January 28 was “revolutionary for the health sector”.

Dr Naresh Trehan and Dr Ashok Seth, renowned cardiologist from New Delhi, Dr S.K. Agarwal, an ophthalmologist from Mumbai, Dr C.P. Rai and Dr Anil Kumar, also from Mumbai, apart from a delegations of doctors from Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences and Patna Medical College and Hospital, several prominent health practitioners from the state are expected to gather for the event.

The department is also trying to invite yoga practitioner Ramdev to attend the event.

Last year, the department had claimed to offer free health-check up and treatment to about 33 lakh people. This year’s target is to reach out to one crore people or about 10 per cent of the state’s population.

Health principal secretary Amarjeet Sinha said the government was keen to strengthen the nursing facilities in government hospitals and several measures were being taken for the purpose. “We are trying to increase student intake in 21 auxiliary-nurse-cum midwives training schools and 13 new nursing schools are also in the pipeline. There is also a proposal under consideration to reserve seats for accredited social health activists. The state urgently needs 20,000 trained and qualified nurses,” he added.

State health society executive director Sanjay Kumar said the department was in the final stage of finalising tender bids for installing advanced diagnostic equipment for computer tomography scan and magnetic resonance imaging facilities in all six state-run medical colleges.