BHOPAL: Even though the government has directed that Rs 500 and 1000 notes will be accepted in hospitals and drug stores but the private hospitals are still unconvinced.
The private hospitals of city kept their services running. Dr Rajesh Sharma, founder Narmada Health Group, said, “There has been no communication from the government regarding the acceptance of Rs 500 and 1000 notes for private hospitals. In the circular, only government hospitals were mentioned. My CA told me that we should not accept these denominations but for patients’ convenience, we have accepted these notes. We have patients coming from villages as well, so it is not possible to trouble them with the payments. My legal team is managing the issue. We did not want the patients to suffer.”
Dr O.P. Shrivastav, Red Cross Hospital, said that there was an initial chaos due to the unclear situation about the private hospitals but we were soon instructed to accept the notes and give the change as much as possible. “We did face problems and in case we had no change, we have requested the patients to keep the deposit and take the amount from us once banks open.”
The drug store owner at Red Cross Hospital, Sandeep Singh Parihar said, “Many people came to us for purchasing medicines like paracetamol and vicks to just get rid of their 500 note. We have given the medicines to patients admitted in the hospital on credit as of now because we can easily reach them and have requested people to make purchase in round figures because we are also running out of change and have denied those who were just here to get change.” Gyanendra Sharma, who runs a drug store outside JP hospital said, “We are facing a lot of problems because we have also ran out of change. Those who know us and are quite regular have agreed to take the change later and had to turn down a few due non availability of change.”
