A scam, estimated at over ₹100 crore, has come to light within the Rajasthan Government Health Scheme (RGHS). This scheme involves many doctors and medical store operators. Doctors committed fraud. They prescribed unnecessary, costly medications. Often, patients had no such ailments. Doctors colluded with medical stores. They aimed to generate illicit profits.
A government audit uncovered the creation of fake medical reports and prescriptions. This practice led to patients receiving unnecessary medications. Consequently, it defrauded the system and endangered public health. The state Finance Department and the Rajasthan Social and Performance Audit Authority conducted the audit. They discovered doctors prescribing expensive drugs without proper examinations or diagnostic tests. Essential reports like HbA1c and RFT were often missing. Despite this, large quantities of medicine were still dispensed.
Egregious examples include doctors prescribing infertility drugs to a pregnant woman, simultaneously prescribing multiple blood pressure medications without symptoms, and giving non-diabetic patients diabetes or heart failure drugs without proper tests. They also unnecessarily prescribed strong antibiotics and insulin, likely to inflate bills. In Rajgarh CHC, extensive duplicate data and fake medical reports confirmed their systemic effort to falsify treatment details and claim scheme benefits.
As a result of these findings, authorities have issued show cause notices to 11 doctors. They have also forwarded the matter to the state health department for further action. This significant scam highlights critical vulnerabilities in public health schemes, demanding immediate and stringent reforms to protect both financial integrity and patient well-being.
