Ahmedabad’s public hospital budget for 2023-24 provides no information or accountability

Rupa Chinai, Dr. Nishith Shah, Jay Sheth and Brijesh Chinai, independent members, Chinai Maternity and Sarabhai General Hospitals, Board of Management, Ahmedabad, comment on hospital Budget for 2023-2024:

***

The Budget for 2023-2024 raises some vital questions about utilization of the huge funds being allocated and the total lack of transparency or accountability on how money is being spent by the VS Board of Management.
Last year’s Budget of Rs.179 crores for 2022-2023 has been increased in the current year to Rs.183 crores. Yet this year’s Budget Report is devoid of any information on the patients who benefitted from these extraordinarily huge allocations.
Take the instance of Chinai Maternity Hospital (Page 5), where between 1.4.21 to 31.4.22 the Budget Report reveals that there was not a single patient of emergency delivery done in the Gynecology Department and not a single case of emergency surgery done in the Paediatrics Department. How is that possible? Medicines allocated for patients is a mere Rs.3 crores 65 lakhs — a figure that is absurdly low given the massive allocations. There are no figures provided for surgeries performed by Orthopedic and several other Departments. This is an extraordinary way to present a Budget, where no information is provided on how public money was utilised and what is the justification for even higher allocations for the forthcoming year!
We notice (Pg. 9) that Rs. 5 lakhs is being earmarked for “Property Tax”. We would like to ask to whom is this property tax being paid and for which properties?
There are several other issues that we took up with the Board in our letter dated 17th January, 2023, in response to the outsourced Audit Report, 2022. These pertain to:

Writing off Rs.49 crores by the VS Board without providing any explanation or justification.
The lack of any action against those responsible for the Rs.8 crore Provident Fund and Duplicate Receipt Book Scams.
Utilization of Rs.16,070,759 for Ayurvedic treatment and medicines poor patients, when as far as we know, no such department exists in VSH.

We have repeatedly stressed since years, that there is an urgent need to ensure that AMC Auditors be required to take final responsibility for auditing of VSH funds that are currently being outsourced to private agencies.
We note with concern that the VS Board has not acknowledged our letter of 17th January, 2023 or cared to reply to our questions.
The hospital administration is requested to provide us complete details of outdoor and indoor patients treated at Chinai Maternity and Sarabhai Hospitals during 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 December.

The farmer's burden: How oil, war, and climate are rewriting the price of food

By Vikas Meshram The scorching flames of the Middle East conflict are now slowly reaching the kitchens of ordinary people. The true price of this war is paid in daily markets, vegetable shops, and in the shattered minds of farmers. Expensive crude oil, skyrocketing fertilizer prices, and rising agricultural costs are together creating the conditions for global food inflation — and this crisis is directly tied to what people eat and drink every day.

Economic nationalism under strain as Indian corporates turn to America

By Sandeep Pandey* U.S. federal prosecutors withdrew a criminal case involving allegations that Gautam Adani had bribed officials in India to secure solar energy projects, stating that they lacked sufficient evidence. Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani also settled a civil fraud case with the Securities and Exchange Commission by paying a fine of around ₹180 crore without admitting wrongdoing. In addition, Adani Enterprises reportedly deposited around ₹2,750 crore into the U.S. Treasury to resolve allegations that it had violated U.S. sanctions on Iran through purchases of Iranian liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

India’s heatwave crisis: How concrete cities are fueling climate emergency

By Rajkumar Sinha* According to recent studies, urban areas are witnessing a much sharper rise in temperatures than rural regions. The planet is currently heading toward an additional 1.9°C of warming — far beyond the target envisioned under the Paris Agreement . A team of climate scientists associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has noted that India’s average temperature increased by nearly 0.9°C during the decade between 2015 and 2024 compared to the early twentieth century (1901–1930). In western and northeastern India, the hottest day of the year has already become 1.5°C to 2°C warmer since the 1950s.

Counterview

Search This Blog