Patients reluctant to share their Aadhaar details

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 30

The orders issued by the Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) asking patients to submit Aadhaar card has not gone down well with patients. Since patients are reluctant in submitting their Aadhaar cards, it is turning into a double whammy both for patients and doctors.

“Patients do not want to submit their Aadhaar cards and sometimes they speak rudely and ask us to show the orders, which make it necessary to submit the Aadhaar card. A patient did not submit the Aadhaar card during his first visit, so I asked him to bring it on his next visit. But on his next visit, he started misbehaving and refused to submit the same. It is my duty and I was doing the same,” said Dr Veenu Khanna, Ayurvedic Medical Officer at Jawahar Nagar dispensary.

Another Ayurvedic Medical Officer from the city said sometimes patients coming to them don’t even have the Aadhaar cards so we cannot deny treatment to them. “We treat them and in case they are carrying their Aadhaar card, they submit it with us . Otherwise, we ask them to submit it anytime or whenever they come next. Nothing can be done of patients, who do not have their Aadhar cards, we examine them and prescribe the medicines as it is our duty,” said a doctor from Ayurvedic dispensary.

Raman Kumar, a patient who went to Ayurvedic dispensary at Model Gram some time ago, said he was taken aback when he was asked to submit the Aadhaar card for treatment. The card is linked to my bank accounts and has my personal information, which can also be misused. How can I give it to anyone?” he questioned. He said he preferred to go to a private practitioner than a government dispensary.

Another patient, Dina Ram from Tibba Colony, said he does not understand why the doctor always asks him to bring some card along. “I do not have any such card made and I fail to understand the role of the card in my treatment,” he said.

According to sources in the department, the move was initiated by the AYUSH ministry to check fake name entry into the registers. “Generally, it was seen that doctors from dispensaries were sending a list of fake patients examined by them per day. Sometimes doctors were not present at dispensaries and were found preparing a fake list of patients. By making Aadhaar card submission mandatory for patients, this is not possible,” he said.