Ranchi, Aug. 26: The health ministry is planning to approve at least two private hospitals in Ranchi where it can send poor people for “specialised treatment” for incurable diseases despite despite its claim to develop the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) into a super-speciality hospital on the lines of AIIMS.

The state health department has a scheme to treat patients living below the poverty line (BPL) suffering from incurable diseases at specialised referral hospitals all over the country. The government provides financial support up to Rs 1.5 lakh per patient.

The patient is required to produce his/her red card, which certifies that the patient lives below the poverty line.

Under this scheme, money is paid directly to the hospital treating the patient. The patients are selected by a committee headed by the health minister and comprising experts from different fields.

The government has approved five hospitals in the state where such patients are referred. These include Rims (Ranchi), Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (Jamshedpur), PMCH (Dhanbad), TMH (Jamshedpur) and Apollo (Ranchi).

Besides, patients are also referred, according to the gravity of the case, to hospitals outside the state like AIIMS, Delhi and Vellore’s Christian Medical College. More than 200 poor patients have been treated so far under the scheme. Sources said recently three private hospitals in the capital approached the department for approval so that patients could be sent to them. These include Raj Hospital, Seva Sadan and Guru Nanak Hospital. The department constituted a committee comprising Rims director, head of the department, surgery, head of the department, medicine (both from Rims) and other doctors, sources added.

The committee went on an inspection tour yesterday and approved two hospitals. A formal decision is still awaited. Sources alleged there was a move to “favour” the hospital-owners as these hospitals will be reimbursed the treatment cost. While one of the hospitals has the “blessings” of Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari, the other two are managed by leaders of the BJP Chikitsa Manch, a frontal organisation of the ruling BJP government, they said.

Doctors of Rims have reacted sharply to the move. A senior doctor said on condition of anonymity: “On one hand, the government says it will make specialised treatment available at Rims and on the other, it sends patients to private hospitals. We have the facilities to treat all kinds of diseases at our hospital. They can easily be treated here. Why drain money at private hospitals? This is loot of public money.” According to an office-bearer of Jharkhand Health and Medical Education Service Association), 80 per cent of the patients treated at Rims are poor and there is no point sending them to private hospitals.