Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: A well known private hospital of federal capital has issued written order to its physicians to admit maximum number of patient on daily basis to generate additional revenue, The Patriot has learnt.
The administration of Maroof international hospital has announced a “special Incentive program” for its “physicians” to maximize the number of patients admitted to the inpatient department (IPD) through the emergency room (ER) to meet the hospital expenses. Any physician, who admits maximum number of patients through emergency room (ER) shall be granted supplemental rupees 5000/- incentive.
Draft proposal for the emergency admission program March, 2015 suggested that minimum number of admission required should not be less than 20 per physician, which means that a cap has been introduced for the minimum number of patients that must be admitted. For every patient above the cap, each physician will get “incentive commission” of rupees 250/- each for every IPD admission.
The letter issued by the administration of Maroof International Hospital clearly states that the average number of patients visiting the emergency in last few months is 70 to 80 per day. And as per the audit conducted by the MSA, the average number of admissions to the IPD is around 4 to 5 patients per day which should be increased for which the incentive program has been introduced.
According to the sources, so far more than 100 patients have been admitted in Maroof International Hospital out of which 81 admissions to the IPD were not on merit. One of the physicians working in emergency of Maroof hospital while talking to The Patriot said that doctors should maintain trust of their patients. These private hospitals are working as business entities and tarnishing the image of physicians. The scribe tried to contact the administration of Maroof International Hospital via an email but no reply was given from the hospital administration. Effort was also made to get the version of the hospital administration via telephone, the scribe was told that the relevant person Dr. Junaid Wajahat has just left the office, however later another person at the hospital ‘Rizwan’ who said he is a supervisor told that Dr. Junaid is in fact not in the country and will return after April, 20.