Regulatory body asks AMRI Hosp to refund over Rs 3 lakh to patient's kin

Kolkata: In a bizarre incident, AMRI Hospital Dhakuria charged the family members of a 74-year-old patient for mineral water on repeated occasions when the patient was kept under the ventilation support till he died.

The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission (WBCERC) found the incident quite unusual and also detected that the private hospital excessively charged the patient's family under various heads. The family members of the deceased patient had to pay Rs 9.34 lakh for a stay of 11 days.

After going through the case, the WBCERC on Friday asked the AMRI Hospital authorities to refund more than Rs 3 lakh. The family members told the Commission that the patient, Amarendra Pal resident of Maheshtala, was admitted to the hospital without Covid.

It was the hospital, where the patient got infected with the virus and later died. The WBCERC however rejected their demand saying that the patient had respiratory distress before admission and there was no direct evidence with the family which can establish that he was infected with Covid in the hospital. The Commission however found irregularities in the way they were charged by the hospital. Pal was admitted to the hospital on July 12 last year.

He remained at the ICU since admission and died there on July 22. The patient had no comorbidity issue.

The WBCERC has also imposed a fine of Rs 3 lakh on Bandhan Hospital in Nadia's Krishnanagar after the commission found glaring medical negligence. During a hearing, the Commission found

that an accident victim was

left untreated at the private hospital for two days. No treatment was provided to the injured patient. The patient developed severe infection and

later shifted to another hospital. The Commission asked the district administration to carry out a probe. They submitted a report to the Commission saying that there were many quacks in the

private hospital and it neither had adequate infrastructure. The patient's wife Rina Mondal registered compliant with

the commission in this regard. The Commission directed the private hospital to pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh to the patient.

In another incident, the Commission asked Sankar Nath Dialysis Center in Dhakuria to pay compensation to the family members of a 46-year-old patient as it found some irregularities on the part of the private health establishment.