Free treatment for patients, but attendants feel cash crunch

New Delhi: Ailing patients may get free-of-cost treatment at the city’s government-run hospitals, but worst-hit by the cash crunch are the relatives and friends accompanying them. With cash running out fast, non-acceptance of old notes and limited access to money, they are left stranded with barely any money to buy food, medicines and to pay for their accommodation. The situation is expected to get worse in the coming days with the government’s decision not to accept demonetised Rs 500 notes from Thursday midnight in both hospitals as well as the select pharma shops which were accepting them.

People waiting at the waiting lounge of Lok Nayak Hospital in Central Delhi said that they were struggling with even buying medicines for their sick relatives. Ashfaq Ullah, who has come all the way from Saharanpur said that it has been almost two days now that he has been unable to withdraw cash from the bank. “My aunt had a minor heart attack. Though the treatment is free, the medicines that need to be bought from outside becomes a problem for us as they refused to accept old currency,” said Mr Ashfaq, who has been living in the waiting lounge for three days.

Ullah is not alone in this situation. Mahendra Sharma from Faridabad said that it has been two days since he is trying to withdraw cash to pay for medicines he needs to buy for his ailing father in GB Pant Hospital. “I have run out of money to buy medicines as I have run out of all the cash I had withdrawn. I have asked my brother in Faridabad to try and withdraw cash and bring it over as it’s not possible for me to stand in a long queue leaving my ailing father unattended,” said Mr Sharma.

Unlike many patients, who have managed to find beds in hospitals for their treatment, Noor Jahan, 45, has been lying on a pavement at the G.B. Pant Hospital premises writhing in pain for last two nights and three days. Along with Jahan are her husband Mohammed Ahmed, a daily wage labourer at a carton manufacturing unit in Sonipat and her 24-year-old son Junaid, also a daily wage labourer, who been fighting hunger pangs and have been subsiting merely on a cup of tea everyday as they have no usable cash in hand.

“The treatment is free here in the hospital. Whatever little cash I had managed to get from home in a hurry during the emergency case was spent buying tickets. Now, we have no usable cash,” Mr Ahmed said.

Another such story is that of Balbeer, a labourer in the Bawana industrial area. He said that his factory owner was still paying him in old currency, which is useless to him now. “I can’t get it changed as I don’t have a bank account. My brother Satpal has been diagonesd with blocked atreries. The hospital provides free treatment, but from where will I get money for food?” asked Balbeer.