State warns pvt hospitals for overcharging on pretext of Covid

Kolkata: The state government has urged all private hospitals not to charge excess for treating patients on the pretext of COVID-19.

Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha held a meeting with representatives of 32 private hospitals and laboratories at Nabanna Sabhaghar on Thursday in which state Health Secretary NS Nigam was also present.

"We have received some reports of patients being charged excessively at private hospitals. A patient has been made to pay the cost of PPEs and masks of all health staff attending the person. It is not right to put the entire cost of taking precautions on a patient. It has to be balanced. Hospitals should bear its cost and patients should be asked to bear a small part of it. The state government will keep a watch on the same," Sinha said while addressing the media after the meeting.

He also raised the issue of disparity in charging for swab tests. "We have told them that if a laboratory can undertake a test at Rs 250 then why does another charge Rs 4,500 for the same," the Chief Secretary said adding that all the private hospitals have been directed that as per the West Bengal Clinical Establishment (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Act 2017, no hospital can refuse treating a patient with the infectious disease. Proper isolation mechanism has to be in place for the same and it should be done in such a way so that non-Covid patients do not panic unnecessarily.

"They have all agreed not to refuse any COVID-19 patient from providing treatment," he said adding that these directions have also been given to ensure that no emergency or life-saving operation is left pending just to get a report of a swab test. It usually takes 24 hours to do it. Private doctors can prescribe swab tests only for symptomatic patients.

He further added: "Basically, the total number of vacant beds in all hospitals is of no use for a patient or his relative. They just want to know if they can get at least one bed to admit their near and dear ones. In a bid to make the task easier, the data will be available on the state government's website and it will also be displayed in every hospital in the next two days."

Data that was made available by 7 pm on Thursday shows that there were 8,225 vacant beds in state-run hospitals while that of the private hospitals will be made available by Friday 11 am.

Maintaining that "the state government is ahead in the war against COVID-19", he said: "We are always prepared to update our infrastructure as and when required. The private sector also has to do the same."

At present, there are around 1,000 beds in private hospitals in Kolkata and 50 percent of them are vacant. There are more than 10,000 beds in dedicated COVID-19 hospitals in Bengal of which more than 8,000 are unoccupied as the total occupancy rate is between 20 to 22 percent. Private hospitals have also been urged to increase the number of beds. Continued on P6