Thoubal ART centre under cloud of fraudulence

From A Correspondent

THOUBAL | Aug 7

The functioning of Anti- retroviral therapy (ART) centre, Thoubal is under a cloud of fraudulent practices. It has become a place of corruption where the staff are embezzling funds meant for the patients.

The funds are being stalled and not provided to the PLHIV (People Living with HIV’s) who are presently undertaking ART treatments.

In May 15, 2015, a memorandum was released by Manipur state aids control society regarding the introduction of welfare scheme called “Local conveyance support to PLHIV.” As per the scheme, patients who are taking ART medicines from a local ART centre will receive a sum of Rs. 150 per month from the centre.

Records are found that since the implementation of the scheme, 7 ART centres out of 10 in the state, were provided with the funds for only 3 months and the remaining 3 ART centres i.e RIMS ART centre, Senapati ART centre and Thoubal ART centre have been provided for only 9 months.

As per the order released by the former health commissioner P.K Singh on January 12, the total amount of funds sanctioned for three ART Centres (RIMS, Thoubal and Senapati) have been disbursed on a reduced amount.

The patients have informed that the staffs of ART Thoubal are not giving out the funds properly; as they would frequently give only an amount Rs. 100 by making an excuse that they do not have the change or Rs. 50. The patients’ request to add them up in the fees of next month is denied by the staffs.

Moreover, the patients would not get any fees after travelling from remote distances as the staffs who are handling the money is absent.  While conducting the transactions, the fees which are kept in due are not made up and the money is not handed out in a monthly basis.

As per the guidelines, the patients who are 2 days late from the scheduled date for arriving at the office will be declined from receiving the fees. However, it has been found that staffs are giving out money to some selected patients who are 4 or 10 days late, which is a clear sign of discrimination.

The staffs are also going against the guidelines which mention that the fees must not be provided if the patient is absent and someone else has come to collect them. The staffs are giving out money to relatives and substitutes who came instead of the patients.

The most shocking finding is that patients from the hills are not provided any fees on the excuse that that they do not come under the ‘Criteria.’ When asked about what type of criteria, the staff would not give any proper explanation.

Patients who are bed-ridden in Thoubal district hospital are not given any fees and the records of those who are getting the fees are not entered in the cards, making them run here and there.

Many patients under Thoubal district have no knowledge about the existence of the conveyance support scheme, as the information is not provided to them by the centre. There are cases when staffs of the centre arrived at the homes of some patients and tried to quarrel or humiliate them, even disclosed their status to the public, simply because the patients came to know about the scheme and started enquiring about it.

The illiterate patients, widows, widowers, children who have lost their father or mother, orphans and many other PLHIVs who would like to keep their status confidential have been discriminated by the staff and these patients have requested the authorities concerned to look into the matter and take actions against the centre.