Additional Municipal Commissioner PMC  Rubal Rao also asked private hospitals with two buildings to allocate one building entirely for treatment of Covid-19 patients, (File)

Cracking down on private hospitals for not following government norms, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has served notice to a private hospital in the city for allegedly furnishing an exorbitant bill to a Covid-19 patient, and to another for refusing admission to a patient. As many as 25 hospitals have been served notices for not updating their dashboards with details on occupied and vacant beds.

“We received a complaint against a major private hospital about charging exorbitant bills for the treatment of Covid-19 patients. They have been served a notice and clarification has been sought from them,” said Additional Municipal Commissioner Rubal Agarwal.

A private hospital which turned away a Covid-19 patient, who later passed away, has also been served a notice, she said. “It was found that 25 hospitals were not updating their dashboards so they have also been served notices for not complying with the directions,” said Agarwal.

Officer on Special Duty at Pune Divisional Commissioner’s office, Saurabh Rao, urged private hospitals to coordinate with the administration to help tackle the pandemic situation in the city and ensure proper treatment for all patients. “Five officers of deputy-collector level would be deputed to monitor the management of Covid-19 patients, with focus on availability of beds and medical bills of the patients,” he said.

Rao also asked private hospitals with two buildings to allocate one building entirely for treatment of Covid-19 patients,

Meanwhile, the Pune district administration has carried out 46,718 swab tests, including 30,555 tests by the PMC, in the week from July 8 to 14, which is the highest number of tests done by a district in the state.