Cops probing if fake GK-1 hospital used agents to lure poor patients

On Thursday morning, when Rahul Kumar rushed his wife to the Agarwal Medical Centre in Greater Kailash-1, he found its doors locked and a group of Delhi Police personnel deployed there.

- Hemani Bhandari

He did not know that, on Tuesday, police arrested the proprietor of the hospital, his wife, and two more employees after multiple allegations of death of patients by negligence emerged.

The police personnel at the spot asked Kumar how he had been referred to the centre, and officers said the information provided by him has possibly opened another dimension in the investigation.

"I told police that my wife had been in pain for two months, and was diagnosed with stones in the gall bladder at a central government hospital. But the earlier surgery date available there was February 9. Since we could not wait that long, and could not afford private care, a staffer at the hospital told me to come to Agarwal Medical Centre, where I could use the Ayushman Bharat card," Kumar told HT.

HT has reached out to the government hospital for a response, and is not naming it because it wasn't clear if the man who allegedly referred Kumar to the Agarwal Medical Centre was an employee of the government hospital or posing as one.