Ours is a country of 1.2 billion people of which nearly a third are estimated to be below poverty line. Supreme Court in 2007 issued orders to the private hospitals in Delhi, that are built on land given at concessional rates, to reserve 10% of their total beds for below poverty line people. Today there are 43 such hospitals and although many of them are doing a great job, there are some hospitals that try getting away from their responsibilities.

Recently when we visited a very famous hospital in south Delhi, a man belonging to a poor family was struggling to get his mother admitted. The familywas from Jaipur and the hospitals there had recommended them an expensive operation. His mother, a heart patient was in great pain and was first made to lie on a bed. Later, when the hospital realized that she was a patient belonging to the EWS category, she was rudely asked to empty the bedand sit on a chair instead. Her son repeatedly tried to speak to the Medical Superintendent-cum-Nodal Officer who clearly didn’t seem to bother and kept telling the man to meet him later.

The man and his mother waited in the hospital from 9 in the morning till 8 in the evening just to be given a few medicines and an appointment after 15 days. There was no separate EWS help counter and not even a single person to help.

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Jagdish Kumar called from the Pushpawati Singhania hospital where he took his mother (Tijo, 46yrs) for emergency treatment. His mother was suffering from severe pain in the kidney, but instead of sending her for emergency treatment, some lady on the reception misbehaved with Jagdish and told him to take his mother to some other hospital. After Charity Beds got involved in Jagdish's helpless situation, the same lady did all the formalities and got this patient's treatment started. Later Jagdish Kumar called us again to inform that his mother is much better now.