After Ayushman fraud, PGIMER Chandigarh to go for online indenting system

In light of an Ayushman Bharat scheme fraud coming to fore in February, PGIMER has decided to switch to an online indenting system.

The Ayushman Bharat scheme provides free treatment and medicines up to ₹5 lakh per year for eligible families. For medicines costing above ₹2,000, patients need the doctor’s prescription in the indent book with stamps from the doctor, nursing officer, Ayushman counter and dispensary. These are then provided for free at PGIMER’s Amrit Pharmacy.

But on February 18, a 25-year-old youth was caught fraudulently securing expensive medicines for free under the scheme from the pharmacy using stamps and indent books of hospital’s urology department.

In response to this, PGIMER and AMRIT pharmacy had jointly filed a formal complaint with the relevant law enforcement agencies, and established an internal committee to investigate the matter and provide recommendations to prevent future occurrences.

Now, following the committee’s recommendations, the existing manual indenting system for patients under cashless schemes will be discontinued and replaced with a secure online indenting process. PGIMER will work with AMRIT pharmacy to increase staffing levels to ensure that medications and implants processed through the new online system are delivered directly to patients at their bedside.

The hospital’s computer section, in collaboration with the internal committee, has already developed a solution to be integrated into the existing Hospital Information System (HIS-1). “We anticipate this transition will be completed within one week,” said official spokesperson of PGIMER.

The other immediate measures to be implemented include a dedicated service area for cashless beneficiaries. A designated area outside the emergency department has been identified for AMRIT pharmacy to exclusively serve beneficiaries of cashless schemes, including Ayushman Bharat.

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