Desun Hosp charges patient Rs 1,15,478 for 19 hrs, regulatory body directs it to return over Rs 65K
Kolkata: Desun Hospital in the city apparently appears to be in the 'business' of making money during the pandemic situation as it continues to charge people exorbitantly flouting the guidelines issued by the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission (WBCERC).
The WBCERC during a hearing on Friday found that Desun Hospital had charged a patient Rs 1,15,478 for his stay at the hospital for 19 hours which the commission considered to be absurd. While going through the bill in detail, the WBCERC noticed that the patient was exorbitantly charged and ordered the hospital authorities to return around Rs 65,478.
The patient, Ashok Kumar Choralia (57) was admitted to the hospital at 2.40 am on August 22. At around 7.30 am, a Covid test was performed and the report came negative at around 5.35 pm. Patients' family members alleged that they did not get proper service and the patient was not given proper treatment. They released the patient at around 9.30 pm on the same day. The hospital had imposed a bed charge of Rs 26,000 twice for the same day. When asked, the hospital told the Commission that they took the bed charge twice for the same day as the patient came to the hospital at 2.40 am. Like hotels, it calculated one bed charge till 12 pm while another bed charge was taken for the remaining hours from 12 pm to 9.30 pm.
The hospital had charged Rs 1,900 for liver function test whereas a top diagnostic center charges Rs 1250 for the same test. It also charged Rs 4,500 twice for carrying out a Covid test twice within a few hours. The patient had paid Rs 50,000 during admission and also Rs 65,478 at the time of release. The Commission instructed to return a second amount and warned the hospital that such an incident does not take place any further.
Desun Hospital had been instructed on September 23 to deposit Rs 4 lakh with the Commission as it delayed the admission of a patient as his wife failed to pay Rs 2 lakh as demanded during admission.
In a separate incident, the WBCERC also instructed B.P Poddar Hospital to return Rs 50,000 to a patient Rajib Singh who was charged exorbitantly. The hospital had charged a total Rs 2,77,159 for eight days.
Horizon Life Line Hospital on CIT road which had no permission from ICMR to conduct Covid tests used to get the tests done from outside and charged around Rs 3500 and 3700 for each test. It has been instructed to pay back the amount taken in excess.
