Doctors at Bheri Zonal Hospital (BZH) are found to be referring patients to private pathology laboratories for commission. Though the hospital boasts of a fully-facilitated laboratory, X-Ray, and Ultrasound facilities, the doctors at Emergency (ER) and Out Patient Departments are found to be pocketing 30 to 50 percent commission from the private laboratories for referring patients.
A source said Dr Rajan Pandey, a physician at the hospital, sends an average of 100 patients a day to Sathi Pathology located near the hospital for various types of blood tests and gets 30 percent commission per head. “Dr Pandey pockets Rs 150,000-200,000 per month in commission from the lab as 90 percent of the patients reaching the lab are referred by him,” the source claimed.
Dr Pandey is often said to be one of the commission-seeking doctors in Nepalgunj and often criticised for subjecting patients to unnecessary tests.
Dr Pandey, however, is not the only one involved in such practice. Gastroenterologist Dr Sanket Risal receives 50 percent in commission for referring his patients to Chaudhary Pathology. According to a pathology operator, the doctor had approached him first but reached a deal the facility upon being told that he could not meet his demands. Likewise, Dr RK Jha is also accused of referring his patients to Sagarmatha Pathology. Sources said some junior doctors, too, get commission by referring patients to such private labs. Other labs, however, have been irked by the tendency of Chaudhary, Star and Sagarmatha Pathologies for increasing the commission ceiling to 50 percent.
Sources said the doctors refer normal patients to less experienced technicians for high commission and serious ones to highly experienced radiologists.
Though around 100 people visit the hospital for ultrasound, only 25 tests are conducted at the health facility every day. According to sources, as the radiologists have their own private facilities outside the hospital, they are concerned more about taking the patients there. Interestingly, there are instances in which the same doctors have conducted up to 80 ultrasounds in a single day.
While doctors have been referring patients to private facilities saying that reports of the hospital’s lab could not be relied upon, lab chief Govinda Poudel claimed there was no question in authenticity of their work as they use equipment and technologies certified by the National Laboratory. Such malpractices continue despite the fact that hospital chief Dr Pitamber Subedi introduced evening lab test services and issued repeated notices to prevent doctors from referring patients to private facilities.
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