Bhubaneswar, Nov. 4 -- The menace of touts or brokers extorting money from patients in lieu of providing quick medical services in various hospitals in Odisha is rampant. This was again evident after 12 persons were arrested by Khandagiri police from the All India Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhubaneswar campus on Friday.

As per initial reports, all the 12 persons were allegedly looting money from patients and their attendants on promise of providing them tokens/ registration tickets which is a pre-requisite to seek medical services.

It is pertinent to mention here that a lot of patients from Odisha and other neighbouring states have to wait for hours in queue to get registration tickets at AIIMS Bhubaneswar.

Senior officials said that Kha...