JOIN USAre private hospitals in Kerala fleecing Covid-19 patients?
From charging the price of one PPE kit from all patients in a ward to refusing to release the body of Covid victim for non-payment of hefty bills, private hospitals in Kerala are facing serious allegations of fleecing Covid-19 patients.
With the Kerala High Court taking serious note of the issue, the state government issued a fresh order fixing the maximum daily rates for Covid-19 treatment at general wards in non-NABH accredited and NABH accredited hospitals at Rs 2,645 and Rs 2,910 respectively. Rates for ICU-Ventilators are fixed at Rs 13,800 and Rs 15,180 respectively and medicines and PPE Kits should be charged within the maximum retail prices.
The High Court bench comprising justices Devan Ramachandran and Kauser Edappagath cited specific instances of some hospitals charging the price of one PPE kit used by a nurse from all patients in the wards. Some hospitals were charging up to Rs 40 for medicines like Dolo and Rs 1,300 for gruel, the court condemned.
A hospital at Kattakkada in Thiruvananthapuram was allegedly refusing to release the body of a 45-year old man who died of Covid as his relatives could not afford the hospital bill of Rs. 4.4 lakh. Thiruvananthapuram district collector Navjot Khosa intervened in the incident and warned of stringent action against hospitals that refuse to release bodies of patients for the inability of relatives to pay bills.
There were reports that in Kollam district a 50-year-old person who recovered from Covid was reportedly unable to get discharged from the hospital as they could not meet the hospital bill of Rs 5.10 lakh. In Thrissur district, a private hospital reportedly gave a bill of around Rs. 68,000 to the relatives of a Covid patient who died after five days of treatment and the charges of PPE kits alone came to Rs 37,300, it was alleged.
Government hospitals in the state, on the other hand, are offering Covid treatment free of cost.