JIPMER does not collect user charges from poor patients: Tamilisai

PUDUCHERRY: Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Friday said it is wrong to say that the poor were levied user charges by JIPMER, denying accusations that the centrally-administered health care facility was charging poor patients for advanced medical services. Soundararajan was making a reference to the agitation the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi had staged against the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), accusing it of collecting user charges from patients not covered under Ayushman Bharat or those from the Below Poverty Line category. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event of the Postal department here, the Telangana governor, who holds additional charge as Lt Governor of Puducherry, said, “JIPMER serves not only patients from the Union Territory but also those from other states. The hospital has been taking care of patients and the poor are never levied any user charge, as “wrongly” alleged by some political parties.”