State suspends Care and Cure Hosp in Barasat from Health scheme
Kolkata: The state government has temporarily suspended the empanelment of Care and Cure Hospital (a unit of Vivo-Care Pvt Limited) in North 24-Parganas’ Barasat under West Bengal Health Scheme (WBHS) after it allegedly failed to adhere to the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA).
The hospital has been accused of several serious charges, including that of denying admission to emergency patients under the WBHS, imposing charges on beneficiaries in excess of the approved rates under the scheme, frequently doing so without issuing valid money receipts, failing to adhere to the prescribed billing procedures for IPD patients.
The medical cell of the state Finance department on Thursday issued a notice saying that they had recently received complaints suggesting that the hospital failed to adhere to the terms of the MoA with the department, resulting in undue hardship and harassment of employees, pensioners and their beneficiaries.
“Followin a thorough review of the complaints filed with the medical cell of the Finance department, it appears that the concerned health care organisation is allegedly engaging in a recurring practice of denying admission to emergency cases under the scheme. This conduct violates the terms of the MoA which requires full and unhindered access for all such cases,” reads the notification. “Additionally, the health care organisation is accused of imposing charges on beneficiaries in excess of the approved rates under the WBHS, frequently doing so without issuing valid money receipts, a further deviation from their contractual obligations under MoA,” it further stated.
The Finance department’s medical cell also observed that the hospital was also failing to adhere to the prescribed billing procedures for IPD patients, resulting in non-compliance with established operational protocols.
In face of a media question regarding the issue, Dr Tapan Jyoti Banerjee on behalf of the hospital answered interestingly. On one hand he said that he does not know anything about the issue but he also contradicted his own statement where he said that the money that is given by the state government against the patients under the WBHS is not sufficient for the hospital to treat them properly.
