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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Uterus shock in Andhra by GS Radhakrishna

Uterus shock in Andhra by GS Radhakrishna

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published Published on Jan 29, 2010   modified Modified on Jan 29, 2010

A state government scheme to pay for hospital treatment of the poor has led to an organ racket, with many private hospitals duping illiterate young women and removing their uterus for illegal sale, a minister has acknowledged.

Altogether 21,000 hysterectomies (uterus removals) have been done across Andhra Pradesh under the Rajiv Arogyasree health insurance scheme since it was launched in 2007 for below-poverty-line (BPL) families, a health directorate probe has shown.

Most of these women had come with stomach pain or bleeding but the hospitals convinced them they needed a “big operation”, Guntur-based gynaecologist Jayanti Reddy said.

Some of the women were told they would die if they didn’t have the operation, Arogyasree minister P. Satyanarayana said.

“Most of the women agreed to have the operation as the government picks up the tab under the Arogyasree scheme,” said Dr Samaram, a social activist.

Government sources said these women, many aged below 30, can never bear children because of the operation. They added that uteruses were in great demand in many European and Asian countries.

Satyanarayana said the charges were being investigated and the guilty hospitals would not only be de-registered but made to compensate the women they victimised.

He said major operations under the Arogyasree scheme would in the future require clearance from district health authorities.

An Indian Institute of Health and Family Welfare survey had revealed last month that 70 per cent of operations under the scheme in Krishna, Prakasam and Nellore districts had been hysterectomies.

The state vigilance department too has probed 25 hysterectomies in Guntur district — where six hospitals had conducted 1,141 such operations under the scheme in two months — and found 21 of them were unnecessary.

“Some women were told (falsely) about malignancy and infections in the uterus and advised removal,” the inquiry report says.

“I went to hospital seeking cure for acute stomach pain and was advised uterus removal if I wanted to live,” said B. Bhulakshmi, 25, of Piduguralla village in Guntur.

The government is also trying to find out whether, apart from the organ racket, hospitals had carried out unnecessary operations just to make money under the Arogyasree scheme.

The vigilance department, which is scrutinising the payments for all operations under the scheme, says 75 per cent of patients were advised some sort of operation such as removal of the appendix, uterus or kidney, or open-heart surgery.

“We are checking whether these surgeries were necessary,” a vigilance official said.

According to the government website for the free healthcare scheme, 503,231 surgeries have so far been conducted under it and over 6 lakh patients treated at a cost of Rs 1,503.61 crore. Some 500 private hospitals were drafted under the scheme for the state’s nearly 6 crore BPL beneficiaries.


The Telegraph, 28 January, 2010, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100129/jsp/nation/story_12040917.jsp
 

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