Telangana: Five hospitals penalised for overcharging, govt issues notices to 64 other facilities

HYDERABAD:  Without losing much time, the Telangana government cracked the whip at the private hospitals that are bleeding the patients white in the name of treatment to Covid-19.

Apart from taking swift action against Virinchi Hospital by cancelling its licence to treat Covid-19 patients after the kin of a deceased Covid-19 patient created trouble on Thursday, alleging that wrong treatment had led to his death, the government went after Neelima, Vinn, TX and Max Health hospitals and revoked the permits given to them for charging outrageous amounts to the patients.

The orders stated that the hospitals under the scanner should not admit any Covid-19 patients and those already under treatment should not be charged more than what the government had already fixed. While this is the first time that so many hospitals have lost their licences to treat at one go, this is the second time that the Virinchi hospital has been punished in this fashion. Last year, the hospital was found to have overcharged the patients incurring the wrath of the government.

In an order issued by the Director of Public Health and Family Welfare office, the hospitals were served show-cause notice with instructions to submit a detailed explanation to the notice within 24 hours. But the hospital authorities failed to submit any explanation to the show cause notice issued or failed to give any satisfactory response on why excess bills were raised.

“Owing to this, the permission given to these hospitals to provide Covid-19 treatment was revoked by the government under the Epidemic Diseases Act and under Telangana Allopathic Private Medical Care Establishments Act,” the order said. It was not just these hospital alone, but nearly 64 other hospitals which have been served notice.

While most responded in 24 hours, four had their licences revoked. Further, the DPH office released the names of all hospitals against whom complaints were received and it highlighted that the highest number of complaints were received against Omni Hospital in Kukatpally with six complaints.

Hospitals threaten to stop treatment if not paid

Omni Hospital was followed by five against Vinn Hospital, three each against TX Hospital Kachiguda, Udai Omni Hospital Abids had three complaints each. The action against hospitals found to be overcharging patients continued through the evening as well. On Friday evening, a 21-year-old B.Tech student Summanth Saadam took to Twitter to narrate his ordeal of being allegedly coerced and threatened by Raghuvendra Hospital in Bowenpally where his 51-yearold father was admitted.

“The hospital intimidated my family to pay Rs 1.2 lakh every day for treatment and even threatened to stop the treatment if they failed to pay up. Eventually, when we had no money left to pay, Minister KTR’s office heard my plea and shifted my father to TIMS where he died within hours of admission,” said Summanth. He further alleged that a few doctors were working across multiple hospitals and were brokering to transfer patients between themselves to earn money.

“The entire ordeal began on May 6 when my father was admitted to Sai Sanjeevani Hospital when his SpO2 levels dropped to 90%. After two days of treatment there, one doctor from the hospital abruptly shifted my father to another hospital, Raghuvendra in Bowenpally without our consent. They claimed they got consent from my father but he was sick. This doctor eventually asked us to sell our land and pay the hospital bills,” added Summanth. The complaint was taken up by Minister KT Rama Rao, who is heading the task force in the State to procure medical essentials in the pandemic via twitter and DPH office has issued a show cause notice.

GREEDY 5

•  Virinchi Hospital-Banjara Hills
•  Vinn Hospital-Begumpet
•  TX Hospital -Kacheguda
•  Max Health- KPHB
•  Neelima Hospital-Sanathnagar