Pensioners cry foul over facilities

PUNE: Central government health scheme (CGHS) beneficiaries, particularly pensioners, are extremely unhappy over the facilities in the seven CGHS dispensaries in the city. CGHS, once the dream scheme of central government employees, has today turned into a nightmare.
Pensioners, as well as regular CGHS card-holders, have been facing problems one after another, especially when comes to procuring life-saving drugs.
Says president of the Defence Civilians Pensioners Association (DCPA), G.S. Bhome: “Our association has almost 4,000 members, most of them CGHS card-holders, who have problems with the scheme.�
Bhome, a retired central government employee who visits dispensary No I at Deccan, said, “The problems are mostly about medicines. For instance, if a doctor prescribes a medicine worth Rs 200 and asks to collect it from his dispensary, the paramedics at the dispensary store simply put us off, saying it’s too expensive for them to procure the medicine and that it should be purchased from the chemist and reimbursement claimed.
“Our claims are cleared almost six months after the submission of papers,� he complained.
Bhome also cited examples of some pensioners, like S.B. Kulkarni and Gokhale, who were refused medicines because they were expensive.
Members of the association have also faced indifference from doctors. “The doctors don’t make proper diagnosis,� Bhome said.
Another pensioner, M.G. Joshi, who suffers from high blood pressure, visits a dispensary in Mangalwar Peth. “Since the dispensary does not have adequate stock of medicines, I have to go there twice, first to make an indent for local purchase, and then, after two days, to collect medicines.
The paramedics, too, behave roughly.� Another patient with high blood pressure, Suresh Kulkarni, goes to the Mukundnagar dispensary. He does not mind visiting the dispensary twice to get his quota of medicines.
“I get my medicines on a monthly basis, so I think I can wait for a day or two,� he says.
J A Gulanikar, a heart patient and a DCPA member,whose only worry is that he has to make two trips to his dispensary for medicines, says, “The association has written to the CGHS to ensure adequate stock of medicines, but the authorities have not bothered to reply.�