Bogus admission record surfaces at PGIMS

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, March 14

A case of fraud involving bogus admission and discharge of a patient supposedly with an intention to take some undue benefit has come to the fore at Pt BD Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) here.

The counterfeit signature of a senior doctor and his stamp has been used on the discharge and follow-up card to show it as authentic.

A two-member inquiry committee of senior doctors set up by the PGIMS authorities does not rule out the involvement of insiders in this illegal act.

Though the case pertains to 2019, it surfaced on Sunday after the local police filed a criminal case against unidentified persons on the complaint of Dr Sandeep, Deputy Medical Superintendent (DMS)-cum-Nodal Officer (Litigation) of the PGIMS.

“A man in police uniform came to the PGIMS and requested a doctor to verify a patient’s documents pleading that these are needed for a court case. The man sneaked off when the doctor — on suspicion – started questioning him. Later, the doctor informed the higher authorities who constituted a committee on January 23, 2020 to look into the matter,” said a doctor on anonymity.

He maintained that as per forged documents, a patient namely Phoolpati, aged 76 years, got registered as OPD patient on October 3, 2019 and got admitted in a unit of the medicine department a day after. She remained admitted there for three days and was discharged on October 6, 2019, he added.

“The inquiry committee comprising Dr SK Singhal of anesthesia department and Dr Kundan Mittal of paediatrics department scrutinised the office record of admitted patients and recorded the statement of the doctor concerned who denied that no patient with that name was admitted or treated by his unit during the period mentioned on her discharge card. The committee submitted its report to the authorities in December 2020,” he added.

Dr Sandeep told The Tribune everything, including admission, discharge and follow-up cards, signature and the doctor’s stamp, had been found bogus in the inquiry. Hence, the case was sent to the police for investigation.