CUTTACK: With the tout menace assuming serious proportions at the SCB Medical College and Hospital here, police today finally swooped on the campus and nabbed eight red-handed while trying to divert patients to the private hospitals and nursing homes in the city. The crackdown commenced during the peak hours in the forenoon and the touts were rounded up from the general Out Patient Department (OPD) of the hospital. They have been identified as Pravat Kumar Sahoo, Jagannath Gaya and Prasant Sethi of Mangalabag, Chandrasekhar Rout, Utsab Swain and Tapu Barik of Kathgola and Pradeep Nayak of SCBMCH Sweeper Colony. The other Biswarathi Nayak, interestingly, used to live in the Jay Mangala Basti that was demolished by the administration recently. The modus operandi was simple. They stalked the OPDs and the Medicine department, particularly, looking for patients who seemed lost for information and getting to the right place. They came forward to extend assistance like getting registration slips and directing them to the OPD room number of the department concerned and providing basic information on where to go and whom to approach. As they gained trust of the patient, they begin to infuse fears in the patients’ minds over lack of facilities and incompetence of the treating doctor and suggested alternatives in private hospitals. The largest public hospital of the State sees huge inflow of patients everyday and a major chunk come from the remote rural parts. Hospital statistics put the number of daily OPD attendance at an average of over 17,000 with more than 1,550 accounting for new patients. The touts were paid commission on the basis of the severity of the ailment, expenses incurred in treatment and extent of hospitalisation in the private ones. One is believed to be able to divert more than three patients every day, Mangalabag police said. While the eight have been booked under Sections 419, 420 and 34 of IPC, police said the raids would now be intensified to sanitise the campus against such elements.