Post-AB-PMJAY fraud at Chandigarh’s PGI, 36 clinical wards and ICUs of Nehru Hospital switch to online indent system

In February, a young man was caught by the PGI security personnel using a fake stamp and claiming Rs 60,000 for medicines under the Ayushman Bharat scheme from the AMRIT Pharmacy. An indent book of the Department of Urology, along with eight counterfeit stamps of various departments of PGI, was recovered from him. He told the police that he was working for someone in Saharanpur, who was using the indent book and fake stamp of PGIMER to get medicines worth crores under the Ayushman Bharat Yojna and sell these to medical stores and had access to patient data of the institute. The case is now with the Crime Branch, and an investigation is on to probe the nexus and the extent of this fraud.

Dr Navin Pandey, Associate Professor, Hospital Administration, PGI, says in Hospital Information System 1 (HIS-1), there is no provision for patient-specific indenting, and wards were doing it. “We had decided that when the HIS-2 system will be implemented, we will begin online indent system, but as HIS-2 is still pending, in response to this fraud detected by PGI, the institute has decided to immediately replace the manual indenting system for Ayushman Bharat beneficiaries with online indenting system to prevent recurrence of such fraud. A new online system was developed on a war footing. Its implementation started on March 18, 2025, from the C block of Nehru Hospital. The clinical areas using this online indent were gradually increased, and from April 4 onwards, all 36 clinical wards and ICUs of Nehru Hospital will be using online indent. It is expected that this new online system of indenting will be implemented in the whole of the institute by the end of this month, thus completely replacing manual indent books for these schemes in PGI,” says Dr Pandey.

Another step taken by PGI is that instead of patients/attendants going to AMRIT for required drugs/implants, the same is delivered to patients at their bedside by AMRIT personnel after receiving the online indent. AMRIT has augmented its manpower to successfully implement this.

“We have made a provision in HIS-1, and now all documents for beneficiaries will be from the PGI computer to AMRIT, and it will all be in the hands of nurses and doctors. We have Ayushmaan beneficiaries from as many as six states, and the number of patients has increased over the last few years. An online system was necessary. From the start to now, we have served around 1,40,000 patients under this scheme,” adds Dr Pandey.

Apart from indent books, which track medical supplies from various departments, bills worth lakhs marked for Ayushmaan beneficiaries are missing from central stores, with about 100 files linked to the scheme tampered with, with several complaints about missing indent books raised in the last couple of years.

In response to this fraudulent activity, the PGI and AMRIT have jointly filed a formal complaint with the relevant law enforcement agencies and have established an internal committee tasked with investigating the matter and providing recommendations to prevent future occurrences. This new system will be used for beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat, HIMCARE, and CGHS. The PGIMER has issued standard operating procedures (SOPs) to guide healthcare staff in using the new system effectively and ensure uninterrupted medical services. This step is in sync with the institute’s digital expansion plan, which strives to improve operational efficiency.