Health Comm asks 3 hosps to return part of bill amount
Kolkata: The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission (WBCERC) has asked three private hospitals in the city — CMRI, RN Tagore Hospital and Spandan to return a portion of the bill amount to the patients' family members in separate incidents as the hospitals charged exorbitantly flouting the rate chart fixed by the Commission.
CMRI has been asked to refund Rs 12,400 and Rs 8,087 to two patients in two separate incidents. Debasish Ghosh, a resident of Sodepur in North 24-Parganas, admitted his father Dinesh Kumar Ghosh (69) for a surgery. During admission, the hospital told the patient's family that it would cost around Rs 39,600 as a package. The hospital said there may be some additional costs and therefore, the bill may go up to Rs 60,000. The patient had stayed at the hospital for two days and no extra services were given apart from the package. The hospital, however, charged the patient Rs 48,087. The hospital told the Commission that the amount went up as the patient was charged for two days but it had announced the package for only one day. The WBCERC has, however, rejected the hospital's claim and ordered them to return Rs 8,087.
In a sperate incident, the same hospital was ordered to return Rs 12,400 to one Ranadhi Prasad Modi, a resident of DH Road, as the hospital had charged extra under various heads.
The Commission has also directed RN Tagore Hospital to return Rs 88,000 to Sourav Das who admitted his father there and later family members complained that the hospital did not treat the patient under the Swasthya Sathi scheme and they had to opt for a cash package of Rs 2.23 lakh. The hospital had charged a bill of over Rs 3 lakh. The Commission has asked the hospital to refund around Rs 88,000. The hospital told the Commission that there was no Swasthya Sathi bed vacant at that time and the patient had to wait to avail treatment under the same.
In another incident, the same hospital has been ordered to provide a discount of Rs 51,835 and Rs 52,762 to one Om Prakash Jaiswal and his wife. Both of them were admitted with Covid. The WBCERC found that the hospital had charged excessively under various heads, including consumable charges, PPE charges, doctors' fees. The hospital has been asked to pay back the amount within a month. It had flouted the rate chart fixed by the Commission.
In another development, Spandan Hospital has been asked to return Rs 12,500 to one Maitryee Dasgupta who had admitted her father. The hospital had charged the patient exorbitantly flouting the rate chart. The hospital has also been asked to provide a compensation of Rs 20,000 as it had put a non-Covid patient in isolation. The family members alleged that the hospital put the patient amidst Covid patients and the nursing staff members did not follow the protocols properly.
