Ahmedabad: Crime branch’s investigation into the angioplasty deaths at Khyati Hospital has found that the hospital marked every file as “emergency” to expedite approvals for medical procedures under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) scheme.
According to crime branch sources, PM-JAY officials revealed that they did not take time to thoroughly review each application and relied solely on the “emergency” tag to expedite pre-authorisation requests so the hospital could go ahead with the medical procedures without delay.
The hospital authorities knew that PM-JAY officials sanctioned between 1,300 to 4,000 “emergency” applications every day and exploited the process.
“The crime branch has already questioned a few PM-JAY officers suspected to be involved in sanctioning the claims filed by Khyati Hospital. The hospital wanted to avoid scrutiny from unfamiliar PM-JAY officers, so the hospital authorities offered bribes and marked their files as ’emergency’ to bypass the review process.
This made sure they received approvals without any delay,” a crime branch officer said.
The probe into the PM-JAY scam has also brought four other big hospitals under the scanner, sources said.
Meanwhile, the state govt has introduced new standard operating procedures for PM-JAY claims and increased the staff strength of PM-JAY section from 60 to 180.
Three FIRs have been filed so far in the Khyati Hospital case and eight accused have been arrested. On Sunday, the hospital’s director, Rajshree Patel, was sent to 10-day police remand.
The owner of the hospital, Kartik Patel, who left for New Zealand when the deaths were reported, is still on the run and was last located in Dubai.
In the past three years, 5,637 people underwent medical checks at the camps held by the hospital in 69 villages across the state.
Between Sep 1, 2021, and Oct 28, 2024, 8,534 patients underwent treatment at the hospital. Of these, 3,842 were beneficiaries of govt schemes. Of these, 112 beneficiaries died, according to a statement from the crime branch.
