Jaipur: The principal seat of Rajasthan High Court in Jodhpur upheld an order directing Jodhpur Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (JVVNL) to reimburse the entire Rs 2.73 lakh spent by a patient on four cardiac stents purchased from a private shop during treatment at a govt hospital.The patient had earlier been reimbursed only Rs 1.70 lakh, leaving Rs 1.03 lakh unpaid.A division bench of Chief Justice Sanjay K Agrawal and Justice Vinit Kumar Mathur on Sept 16 dismissed the appeal filed by JVVNL against the Sept 14, 2022 order of a single judge, which had directed reimbursement of the remaining amount.“The case concerned Jagdish Chandra Bissa, who suffered from cardiac ailment and was admitted to Mathura Das Mathur Hospital, Jodhpur. He underwent angiography and angioplasty, during which four stents were implanted. The total expenditure incurred was Rs 2,73,832, but only Rs 1,70,800 was reimbursed by the authorities,” counsel for the respondent N S Rajpurohit said.Challenging the single-judge order, the state argued that reimbursement for more than three stents was not permissible under Appendix IX of the Rajasthan Civil Services (Medical Attendance) Rules, 2013.Bissa, however, argued that when treatment was provided at a govt hospital, it was the hospital’s responsibility to provide the necessary equipment. “If a required consumable was unavailable, the patient had no option but to purchase it from the open market and should be reimbursed accordingly,” said Rajpurohit.After hearing the arguments, the court said that a govt hospital’s inability to provide stents cannot deprive the patient of full reimbursement.
