AIIMS students, faculty urge PM to withdraw user charges

New Delhi, Mar 20 (UNI) Resident doctors, faculty and students of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) today urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to withdraw the decision to levy user charges on patients.

In an appeal, they said thousands of patients were facing hardships everyday due to the ''mindless'' decision of the AIIMS management.

''AIIMS functionaries are clearly removed from the social reality and the objective of the government... the order should be withdrawn to save about 20 lakh patients, coming to AIIMS every year, from harassment,'' the appeal said.

Requesting the Prime Minister to look into the matter, they said despite strong public sentiment against the move, a fresh notice had been issued asking patients to carry the Below Poverty Line (BLP) card creating further confusion.

Arguing that only Rs 3.41 lakh had been generated in December by levying user charges, they said the paltry amount would not ''help achieve anything'' when the budgetary allocating of AIIMS was more than Rs 371 crore.

''The user charges are just a way to harass poor patients and this must stop,'' they added.

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