PMC restricts GBS treatment aid to specific areas, leaving others in the lurch

A city-based chartered accountant (CA) and his family faced significant hardship due to an unusual directive by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), which restricted financial assistance for Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) treatment to specific areas. Despite directives from Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, PMC officials refused to extend aid because the patient did not reside in the designated affected zones.

The patient, a-64-year old Rajiv Karandikar, has already spent Rs 4 lakh on treatment at a private hospital over the past two weeks. When his friend Sanjay Kulkarni, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker, submitted the required documents to Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) as instructed, the officials denied assistance.

PMC’s health department restricted financial aid to patients only from Sinhagad Road, Narhe, Kothrud, and Sus area only. This has raised concerns about whether PMC will take responsibility for GBS patients from other parts of the city. Kulkarni criticised this discriminatory policy. His friend, Rajiv Karandikar, a resident of Sadashiv Peth, was initially denied financial aid despite being diagnosed with GBS.

Karandikar initially felt unwell after eating vada-pav and drinking water outside and was admitted to Sahyadri Hospital in Deccan. As his condition worsened, he was shifted to Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, where he was diagnosed with GBS after four weeks. He is undergoing treatment there. PMC officials visited Karandikar and requested his Aadhaar card along with a cost estimate for the treatment, which was approved by the National Insurance Board (NIB). The estimated treatment cost at Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital is Rs 6 lakh.

When Kulkarni submitted the required documents to the PMC health department, he faced a long wait due to a lunch break. After that, he was sent from one official to another, only to be told that, as per the municipal commissioner’s order, financial aid was limited to residents of Sinhagad Road, Narhe, Kothrud, and Sus. Kulkarni objected to this restriction, pointing out that GBS cases were being reported not just in Pune but also in Pimpri-Chinchwad and Solapur. He urged the commissioner to revise the order so that all affected patients could receive medical assistance. 

He expressed his frustration, “My friend Karandikar’s daughter is in America, and his wife, Aparna Karandikar, is at the hospital caring for him. I gathered all the required documents and went to the PMC office, but I had to wait an hour because of their lunch break. The staff was unprofessional, passing me from one official to another like a football. In the end, they refused the documents, saying my friend wasn’t from the designated GBS-affected areas.”

Officials speak

Dr Neena Borade, PMC’s health department chief, told mid-day, “Due to a significant rise in GBS cases in the Sinhagad Road area, PMC has designated the region between Rajaram Bridge and Khadakwasla as an affected zone. About 80 per cemt of the reported cases have come from these pockets. A high-level meeting is being organised to determine whether patients from outside the designated areas will receive benefits under government schemes.”

Dr Sameer Jog, a consultant intensivist at Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, told mid-day, “We cannot disclose specific patient histories as per protocol. However, 19 GBS patients were admitted to our hospital, and 16 have been discharged. Typically, patients require about four weeks of hospitalisation, though some recover within eight to ten days.”