Apollo Group Eastern zone president resigns

Amid the present glare on private hospitals for alleged medical negligence and inflated bills, Apollo Hospitals on Thursday announced that the group's president of eastern region Rupali Basu has resigned.

The Chennai-based hospital management said in an internal communication that there would be a new leadership with Rana Dasgupta taking over as Chief Executive Officer of the Apollo Gleneagles Hospital here with immediate effect.

Hospital sources said the group's director, southern region, N. Satyabhama would take additional charge of eastern region. However, the communication made no mention of the recent developments.

Apollo Gleneagles Hospital has been in the eye of a storm after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee publicly pulled up private hospitals for "unethical moneymaking" at a Town Hall meeting on February 22.

Banerjee had then specifically asked the Apollo representative about the spiralling bills.

Days after Banerjee's public tongue lashing, Apollo again got into the news after it came to light that the hospital had kept as guarantee the fixed deposit certificates of a patient who was shifted to a state-run hospital after being unable to pay the full amount of the bill that ran over Rs seven lakh in the private health facility.

The road accident victim -- 30-year-old Sanjoy Roy -- died at the SSKM hospital, following which his family vented their ire on Apollo for "inadequate treatment" and "delayed release".

An enraged former state minister Madan Mitra likened the hospital to a "crematorium" and asked it to refund the entire bill amount to the victim's family.

The hospital management agreed but the victim's widow refused to accept any refund.

A high-level health department committee and the city police are probing the case.