CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, Aug 29: The Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) will soon be tendering out all lab tests/x-ray, etc on a unit cost basis as reagents/ chemicals are not always available in the hospital and quite many times equipment are non-functional.
The additional director (administration) of RIMS Chandan Kumar said that the real reason is Conflict of Interest. He added that it is no secret that many doctors have a commission system with private labs that mushroomed around RIMS.
“Unfortunately, patients have to go outside for most of the tests. RIMS have tried to conduct in-house tests through multiple mechanisms. – They tried to buy equipment and reagents/chemicals etc. But somehow chemicals are not always available when they are needed. And quite often, equipment is non-functional. I think these are excuses. The real reason is Conflict of Interest. It is no secret that many doctors have a commission system with private labs that mushroomed around RIMS,” the ADA said in a statement.
He further added that a company donated RIMS lab equipment free of cost and offered them to buy the reagents/chemicals from them at a 5 times higher market price.
“A company ‘donated’ lab equipment free of cost, and RIMS only had to buy only reagents/chemicals from them. We found to our shock that the company is selling these chemicals at 5-times the market price. And the machine accepts chemicals only if we buy from them. So, the company effectively made a fool out of RIMS at the time of ‘donation’,” he stated.
He further mentioned that to tackle these problems RIMS will be soon starting a model similar to AIIMS where it will pay to private labs on a per-test basis.
“AIIMS has a simple model, where it pays a private lab on a per-test basis. Every test is conducted by that private lab on campus. AIIMS doesn’t purchase equipment or reagents. We are working on starting a similar model in RIMS, but there is going to be huge resistance from people with a vested interest,” he explained.
