Hospitals discriminate against poor: Rahul

Hospitals in India discriminate against the poor, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said here Friday.

Inaugurating the Indira Gandhi Eye Hospital in Raipur village near Sohna, 26 km from Gurgaon, Gandhi said the hospital would provide access to quality eye care to the marginalised section of society and to low and middle income groups from both rural and urban areas.

"I had visited a hospital in Delhi a few months back and was shocked to see a line written there saying 'Poor are not allowed'," Gandhi said.

He, however, did not mention the name of the hospital or say whether it was a government or a private one.

The Congress leader said both poor and rich people would get similar treatment in this hospital with a 16-bed facility.

He said a team of doctors would visit far-flung areas and check people's eyesight.

Gandhi said the parents of a little girl, Mohsina, thought she was mentally disabled. When doctors examined her, she was found to have poor eyesight. She was treated and "now her life has completely changed".

This would be the third Indira Gandhi Eye Hospital run by the Rahul Gandhi Charitable Trust. The other two are in Amethi and Lucknow.

Over 15 lakh patients have been treated and cataract operations performed on two lakh patients in these two hospitals, he said.