Painting a grim picture of health services of Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party national president and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said that health services in the state had become miserable in the Bharatiya Janata Party rule as a result of which people were running from pillar to post to get treatment.

“During the Samajwadi Party regime, expensive machines were purchased which are now gathering dust because they have stopped working because of non-maintenance. Even the companies have refused to repair them,” Yadav said during his interaction with media persons here on Saturday.

He said that had the BJP government maintained the health infrastructure of the Samajwadi Party regime many lives would have been saved.

“The state health minister is doing drama for cameras. He raids hospitals and claims that he has found fault and the same will be rectified. Whose fault is this? Whose government has been there for the last five years? If he is finding fault in medicine purchase and infrastructure, this clearly shows the previous government has not worked,” Yadav said.

He said that the apathy of the government was evident from the fact that the medical university named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was being run from the 9th floor of the Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences established during the Samajwadi Party regime.

“This shows how serious the BJP government is in the matter of treating its leader and the public,” the SP leader said.

Yadav said that under the Samajwadi Party government, the facility of free treatment was being provided on a prescription of one rupee and there was a facility of free treatment of serious kidney, liver and heart diseases and cancer.

“In the present government, treatment has become expensive. Profits are being made from the poor. The 108 and 102 Ambulances service has been destroyed. Money is being charged from patients to take them to hospital,” he alleged.

Referring to the chief minister’s claim that health services were being provided at the district level, Yadav asked if the hospitals in districts were good, why the patients were rushing to hospitals in Lucknow.

“They are coming to Lucknow because patients in districts are dying without medicines and treatment. They are not getting proper treatment,” he said.