Kin of deceased accuse Sanjay Gandhi Hospital of rejecting Ayushman card, hospital denies charges

Kin of the deceased Nanhe Lal Mishra on Sunday alleged that Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, where Congress president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi are trustees, refused to accept Ayushman card for his treatment, a charge the hospital administration has rejected.

"Nanhe Lal Mishra was my uncle. We took him to Sanjay Gandhi Hospital. He had problems in legs and in the stomach. We deposited Rs 3,000. When we showed them the Ayushman card, they said it was of Yogi (UP CM Yogi Adityanath) and Modi (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) while this (hospital) is of the Congress. They said that it will not work here," said Arun Mishra, nephew of Nanhey Lal Mishra, while talking to ANI.

Arun Mishra also insisted that they have nothing to do with politics. "We told Smriti Irani all that happened. We have nothing to do with politics," he said.

Rohit Kumar Mishra, son of the deceased, also repeated these charges.

"My father was ill. We got him admitted to the hospital on April 25. They were saying Ayushman card will not work. Come tomorrow. We then admitted him to the emergency ward. One of our elder brothers gave Rs 4,000. They were saying that first, you need to deposit the money. Only then he will be treated upon. We showed the Ayushman card but they said this card will not work here," said Rohit.

He further said that the hospital referred his father to Lucknow. Nanhe Lal Mishra died on April 26 while the paper works for his shifting were being completed.

Earlier in the day, Union Minister and BJP candidate from Amethi Lok Sabha seat Smriti Irani alleged that Sanjay Gandhi hospital refused to accept Ayushman card of a poor patient, a charge which was outrightly rejected by the hospital administration.

"I am speechless today. I cannot imagine that one can stoop so low. A poor person was left to die because he had Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Ayushman card but the hospital was of Rahul Gandhi," tweeted Irani.

The hospital administrations denied the charges by Smriti Irani and the relatives of the deceased.

SM Choudhary, Director of Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, said: "There is no basis to these tweets by Smriti Irani."

"The patient came to us on April 25. He was diagnosed with chronic liver disease. He was an alcoholic. His liver was completely destroyed. There is no tertiary care facility in our district. We treated him as much as we could and then I had suggested to them that he should be taken to Lucknow," said Choudhary.

"He began to gasp. We performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) but could not save him," said Choudhary.

Rebuffing allegations that the hospital rejected Ayushman card, he said: "No hospital can have any political affiliations. When we treat someone, we treat him as a patient."

Ayushman Bharat is the flagship healthcare scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which covers 10 crore poor families, and entitle them to avail treatment up to Rs 5 lakh at the tertiary level.

Irani is facing Rahul Gandhi from Amethi Lok Sabah seat which is set to go to polls on May 6. Rahul has been winning the seat since 2004. In the last Lok Sabha poll, Rahul defeated Irani in Amethi.