Lucknow: 3 more hospitals face FIR for fleecing corona patients

LUCKNOW: Tightening noose on private hospitals fleecing Covid patients, additional chief medical officer Dr AK Singh gave a written complaint to police against three hospitals on Friday. On May 18, an FIR was registered against three private Covid hospitals on similar charges.
ACMO filed complaint against one hospital in Gomtinagar and two on Rae Bareli Road. As per the complaint, the hospital in Gomtinagar was charged Rs 3,000 for a RT-PCR test and forced the patient to pay up via cash and online transaction but did not give the original bills.
In a joint investigation by OSD Revenue Board Apoorva Yadav and medical officer Dr Shailesh Parihar, it was found that the hospital had charged the patient under various heads, including ward charge, physician’s visit, oxygen handling, nursing, ICU. Similarly, a private hospital in Mohanlalganj, which was run by one BAMS, charged Rs 50,000 per patient for 24 hours for Covid-19 treatment.
Investigation by SDM Sarojninagar revealed that the doctor was ICU incharge in hospital records and during the probe no other staff was found. However, the hospital claimed that there were nine other staff.
Further, the hospital never provided a medical bill against the payment. Between April 1 and May 20, the hospital admitted 58 patients, out of whom 13 died during treatment.
The third hospital, located in Utretia, was a non-Covid facility, but still treated a Covid patient who later died. The family of the deceased paid Rs 6.6 lakh for the treatment but the hospital gave a bill of Rs 3.93 lakh only. Further, it was found the hospital was charging Rs 15,272 daily for various tests.