Private hospitals looting patients in name of treating corona
BHOPAL: Patients may recover from the corona infection, but they may succumb to financial crisis once they are out of the hospitals. In the name of treating corona patients, the private hospitals in the state capital are looting people.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan takes feedback on corona cases daily. Fixing the cost of corona treatment has come up many a time, but, in the past one year, the government failed to take a decision on how much money the private hospitals will charge to treat a covid-19 patient.
Seeing the exorbitant charges taken by the private hospitals, collector of Indore, Manish Singh, fixed the rates for corona treatment in private hospitals last year. It has, however, not been done for the private hospitals in the state capital. Those who got their family members treated at private hospitals said they did not know how much money they would charge.
A private hospital in Arera Colony in the state capital has prepared a bill of Rs 7 lakh for treating a patient who had a mild attack of the virus. No action was taken against the owner of the hospital, since he is close to power.
To treat some serious patients, the private hospitals charged even Rs 20 lakh. Another well-known hospital makes a bill of Rs 5 lakh for each corona patient. Besides that, a patient has to pay charges for medicines separately. The private hospitals are charging a heavy amount on Remdesivir injection.
Another hospital has made three types of packaging for treatment. The hospital charges Rs 75,000 for mild infection for keeping the patient in general ward and Rs 90,000 for private ward. Apart from that, one has to pay charges for medicines separately. For treatment of mild infection, the charge is Rs 1.5 lakh, but that of serious cases there is no limit to expenses.
MPCC president Kamal Nath has already raised the issue of exorbitant charges being taken by private hospitals to treat the corona patients. Many eminent people have also raised the issue, but the district administration and the government have kept mum.
