Gurgaon chief medical officer (CMO) Pushpa Bishnoi has accused several private hospitals in the city of creating swine flu panic by unnecessarily advising patients with symptoms of cough, cold and fever to undergo swine flu tests.
“These hospitals are unnecessarily prescribing Tamiflu, an antiviral medicine that the government provides free of charge to patients,” said Pushpa.
But officials at private hospital maintain that they are strictly working on directions given by the state health department.
“I called a meeting of representatives of major private hospitals, as we have been getting check up requests for Tamiflu. These doctors are advising almost all patients of cold, cough or fever, to get the H1N1 test done, just to earn a little extra money. Some hospitals such as Paras and Medanta, for instance, are doing so,” Bishnoi was quoted as saying.
