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By Atyasha Singh*
Patna: Cracking the whip against errant private hospitals the Patna district administration on Friday sealed a private hospital in the state capital on charges of fleecing attendant of a Covid-19 patient and holding him captive for clearance of bills.
Hospital was charging Rs 50,000 per day against Rs 10,000 per day fixed by the government. It had charged Rs 6.34 lakhs against Rs 1.90 lakh.
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An FIR has been lodged against the hospital management and a manhunt has been launched to nab hospital Director Raju Kumar Singh and four others whose names figure in the FIR. Besides, proceedings have been initiated to de-empanel the hospital which was among the 28 hospitals selected to treat COVID-19 patients.
The accused have been charged under various sections of IPC and Epidemic(control) Act,criminal conspiracy,cheating and wrongful confinement.
District Magistrate, K Ravi had ordered an inquiry against the hospital management after he was apprised with the “criminal “act of the hospital management.
For record this was the second case within a week, when the government had to intervene to rescue a patient held captive by the hospital management for clearance of inflated bills.
According to the complaint attendants of the 48 years old patient had already paid Rs 2.46 lakhs but the hospital management had handed over handwritten bill of Rs 6.34 lakhs. He was kept in ICU for six days and three days on ventilator. He was kept under wrongful confinement and restrained from being discharged from the hospital as hospital management pressed for payment of Rs 6.34 lakh.
Meanwhile Health department today asked all district magistrates to keep watch on the private hospitals in view of two such incidents.Three slabs have been fixed for all private hospitals. Those having accreditation with National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers will be allowed to charge only the fees prescribed by the government. In the state capital it is Rs. 10,000 including Rs. 1200 per day for PPE kits,in divisional headquarters Rs. 8000 and in district headquarters Rs. 6000 daily.Extra charges for ventilators too have been fixed.
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