NEW DELHI: "Touts from labs outside the hospital are not allowed in the gynaecology OPD area and hospital premises. Strict action will be taken if someone is caught by security persons or police," reads a notice displayed prominently outside the radiology division of Guru Tegh Bahadur (GTB) Hospital in east Delhi. At Lok Nayak Hospital in central Delhi, security personnel ensure the crowd remains in a queue during OPD registration and while buying medicines.

This semblance of order, which was always overruled in the name of overcrowding at state-run hospitals , is a welcome sight. However, it cannot be said whether these superficial changes have rooted out corruption in government hospitals.

"There is cleanliness in the hospital and we have not had to pay a bribe to get bedsheets changed, something common earlier," said a patient admitted at GTB Hospital for knee surgery. However, other patients said they are often asked to take the patients for diagnostic investigations without any help from the staff deployed for this purpose.

Purchase of medicines and equipment-main source of corruption-is now being done through a centralized system, said officials.

Hospital sources said fear of sting operations by the public and media, something the Delhi CM has been openly propagating, and subsequent complaints are for the time being keeping a check on malpractices. There are few touts loitering around the OPD area and wards to lure patients for cheaper medicines, quicker tests or blood but they have not disappeared completely, said a senior doctor, who did not wish to be identified. Complaints about unavailability of medicines and junior doctors manning the critical care units remain common though.

"Of the nine medicines prescribed by the doctor, I have got only two from the pharmacy. They always claim shortage of medicines that are costlier, such as antibiotics. We fear that these are being sold in black market," said Seema Sheokand, a patient at Lok Nayak Hospital.

Patients complain that most of the time diagnostic facilities, such as x-ray and CT scan, are not working , forcing them to opt for private laboratories to get tests done. It has also been found that equipment is lying unused due to lack of maintenance. At Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Hospital in west Delhi, for example, an examination of log books found that a number of instruments and machines, including cardio monitor, compression therapy unit and ProTime INR (used to confirm clotting tendency of blood), among others, were lying non-functional and have not been repaired since 2010, according to an internal audit report.

"There has been reduction in corruption in hospitals. It is mainly due to fear of action. We plan to take further initiatives, such as expediting investigations in pending corruption cases and punishing those guilty to set an example," said Satyender Jain, Delhi's health minister.