Kolkata: West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission (WBCERC) has asked Ruby General Hospital to provide a discount of Rs 1 lakh to the family members of patient who died after being released from the hospital.
The family members of the deceased registered a complaint with the commission against the hospital authorities and alleged that the bill was inflated. Swapan Sur (60), a resident of Ramchandrapur was admitted to the hospital with Covid on August 26. He was released from the hospital on September 4. The patient eventually died the next day. The hospital had asked the deceased's family members to pay a bill of Rs 8,87,661. The hospital claimed during hearing that they discounted and revised the bill to Rs 8,53,000. Patient party however claimed that they had paid the entire amount. The commission asked the hospital to produce a cash memo and pay around Rs 34,661 if the patient party had paid in full. The WBCERC found that the revised bill was exorbitantly charged. It found that the cost of tests was high compared to the standard rate. Laboratory charges and bed charges were also too high. The commission has instructed the hospital to provide a discount of Rs 1 lakh on the overall bill.
In another incident, the WBCERC has instructed the Woodlands Hospital to provide a discount of Rs 50,000 to a 69-year-old patient Subrata Basu Mullick who was admitted to the hospital on May 11 with UTI infection. The patient had stayed there for 18 hours. The hospital told the family members that the patient would undergo Covid test and therefore he was kept in isolation.
The report came positive on the next day and the family members were asked to shift the patient within 3 hours. The hospital had charged the patient Rs 92,000 for a short stay. When the case appeared the hospital authorities initially offered a discount of Rs 10,000 which the patient party readily denied. Later the hospital agreed to provide a discount of Rs 50,000. The Commission has asked the hospital to pay the amount within a week.
In another development, the WBCERC instructed the AMRI Dhakuria not to encash two post dated cheques of around Rs 58,000 and Rs 50,000 each deposited by the family members of one Papia Basu (67) admitted to the hospital on June 14. The patient was treated at the hospital for 105 days.
The family members alleged that there were some mistakes in the reports as patient sometimes tested Covid positive and sometimes Covid negative. The hospital had charged Rs 31,00,000 out of which Rs 25,00,000 was realized from the insurance company. The patient was supposed to pay around Rs 5.7 lakh out of which Rs 4 lakh was discounted by the hospital.