DT Next Exposé: Haves buy way out of jail to hosp, have-nots die waiting

CHENNAI: For referral, Rs 50,000. For admission, Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. These astronomical amounts are not charged by super-speciality corporate hospitals, but by the racket comprising doctors, officials, and lawyers operating out of central prison from inmates who seek treatment for their ailments. Whether the health issue is real or cooked up to stay out of jail, those able to pay up are instantly transferred. The ones who cannot afford the bribe have to resign themselves to fate; some even die an undeserving death.

Stories emerging out of the prisons in Tamil Nadu, which DT Next verified through multiple sources, reveal that the delay due to the hard bargain for money – running to several lakh rupees – by a particular doctor deputed by the State Health Department and prison officials have even resulted in deaths of inmates facing serious health complications. However, blame it on contempt or condemnation for prisoners, information about such deaths seldom comes to light.

Sources said that the doctor, in connivance with jail officials, demands Rs 50,000 to give clearance for sending an inmate as an outpatient to Government Stanley Medical College Hospital or Royapettah General Hospital.

“If one needs to get admitted to these hospitals, the bribe amount ranges from Rs 3 lakh to 5 lakh,” said an insider on condition of anonymity.

The payment of bribes never takes place inside the prison. “A lawyer close to the doctor collects the money from the relatives of the inmates. With the help of multiple digital payment ways available nowadays, the transaction is very fast,” alleged a person who had recently come out of jail. His application for getting treated at an outside hospital was not entertained by the jail doctor or officials because he refused to pay the bribe that they demanded, he claimed.

Lucrative prison industry: Pay as you go

While ailing inmates who are not rich or influential, like in the case of some politicians, are at the mercy of jail staff and doctors of the prison clinic, those who are ready to pay without hesitation get clearance with no time.

The preferential treatment extended to three members of a business family, who were arrested for defrauding banks to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees, is a case in point. “They were shifted to Stanley Hospital just a day after they complained of chest pain. They had reportedly paid Rs 15 lakh,” sources said.

This stands in sharp and tragic contrast with that of S Arul, a remand prisoner who died earlier this year without getting the urgent treatment he required after his chronic diabetic situation worsened, noted sources.

Insiders alleged that he was not allowed to seek treatment outside despite repeated requests because he could not arrange the bribe amount as his bank accounts were frozen.

“'Pay money first and then go to hospital’ seems to be the doctor’s one and only principle,” noted a prison staffer.

Detailing the death of another inmate that happened a year ago, the official said on the night of Deepavali in 2022, the prisoner reported chest pain at 9.50 p.m. By the time he was attended to around 11.30 p.m., he died. As the ambulance service crew refused to take him out to the government hospital as he was already dead, he was taken to hospital by a jail vehicle.

“If an inmate suddenly falls sick, other inmates shout and scream for help. Even if they try to draw the attention of officials by hitting the bars with their utensils, it will take at least 30 minutes for somebody to come and attend to them. In this case, however, it took more than one and a half hours. By that time, the man had died,” sources added.

In the case of the death of another inmate, the medical team allegedly convinced the paramedical team in the ambulance to make sure that the ambulance crew would not refuse to take the corpse to a government hospital. When contacted, a senior officer from the State Prison Department said that the issue would be probed and proper action would be taken.