(Reuters) - Doctors in Chhattisgarh performed hysterectomies on poor village women without a valid medical reason in order to claim money from a national insurance scheme, the state's health minister said on Wednesday.
Under the programme launched in 2008, doctors can claim up to 30,000 rupees to treat poor families, providing a safety net to help pay for expensive hospital surgeries. But critics say the programme was exploited by unscrupulous doctors.
"The women were deliberately ill-advised by doctors who removed their uterus to get money," state Health Minister Amar Agrawal told Reuters.
"As per my information the doctors have so far managed to make roughly 2 crore (20 million) rupees in recent months by removing uteruses without any valid medical reasons."
The state government examined 1,800 hysterectomies performed in the impoverished state as part of an investigation into the alleged scam. Many of the operations were suspected to have been performed illegally, government sources told Reuters.
A woman cannot bear children after the removal of a uterus and the procedure is often accompanied by the removal of ovaries, which some...
