Outsiders reaping benefits of Bengal's health schemes

Kolkata: Thousands of people from neighbouring states are getting benefits of various health schemes initiated by the Bengal government.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's dream projects of providing free-of-cost health services in all state-run hospitals and medical colleges, have already become a great success with a large number of people availing free treatment at the hospitals. Now, it has been found that many patients from neighbouring states and countries are also benefitting from the health schemes.

The success of the project has gone to the extent where a large number of people are coming to the city to undergo critical surgeries at various hospitals, thereby availing the benefits of the health schemes started by the Mamata Banerjee government. According to a senior Health department official, people from outside the state are reaping the benefits of the projects and many of these patients are undergoing critical surgeries at various state-run medical colleges in the city, free-of-cost.

A sizeable number of patients are from Bangladesh. In most of the cases, the state Health department is clueless about the whereabouts of these patients coming from outside, as they show themselves to be local residents. After the disease is cured, the patients go back to their respective native places. This in turn is creating a pressure on the state government.

"We cannot stop a patient from outside from being treated at a government hospital free-of-cost, only because he/she is not a resident of the state. Thus, many outside patients are found to be getting the benefits of various health schemes of the state," a senior official of the Health department said.

It has been found that in many cases, the patients mention the address of their local relatives, where they stay during their visit to the state. Most of these outside patients are from Jharkhand and Bihar, among other states. A large number of people from Bangladesh and Nepal also visit the hospitals.