Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (JD)

Mangaluru, Nov 17: Members of the local unit of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) on Thursday November 17 protested at Colaco Hospital here, alleging that the hospital had refused to accept the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes from patients.

DYFI leader Imthiaz said that 13 patients in the hospital were ready for discharge on Wednesday November 16, out of whom some offered to pay by cheques as they had no cash in hand. However the hospital allegedly refused to accept the cheques too fearing that they would bounce.

"After the DYFI intervened on Wednesday evening, the hospital accepted the cheques. Today about 2 or 3 more patients out of the 13 were ready to go home but they could not due to shortage of new currency notes to pay bills. The hospital again refused to take cheques. The patients' discharge summaries and prescriptions were not handed over to them without payment of the bills," Imthiaz alleged.

"The hospital has also put up notices stating that according to the government notification, old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes will not be accepted," he added. The DYFI activists tore up the notices.

The patients who wanted to pay their bills in cash reportedly requested the hospital to accept the old currency notes and deposit them in the hospital's account, but to no avail.

Imthiaz said that the DYFI then approached district health officer (DHO) Ramakrishna who expressed his 'helplessness'.

Asked if the DYFI had approached the hospital management, Imthiaz said, "The management did not speak to us directly but instead sent female staff to talk to us."

DYFI state president Muneer Katipalla, Santhosh Kumar Bajal, Jeevanraj Kuthar, Sadique and others were part of the protest.

'Govt order not for private hospitals'

When contacted, DHO Ramakrishna said that in the official notification to the DHOs, only government hospitals have been directed to accept the old currency notes and not the private ones.

"There is no mention of private hospitals in the government notification. Still, out of humanity, we have asked the private hospitals to accept the demonetised currency notes. But we cannot take any action in this regard as there is no government order making it mandatory for private hospitals to accept these notes," he said.

Speaking to daijiworld, manager of Colaco Hospital Arun Kumar said that though cheques were not being accepted from patients, the hospital has now started taking them.

"It is true that we were not accepting cheques from patients, but now we have decided to do so on the instructions of the management.

"Nowhere in the government circular has it been mentioned that private hospitals should accept the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. The order applies only for government hospitals and not private setups. Hence, as per the order, we decided not to accept the demonetised notes," he said.