E-Paper
Withholding patient’s body over unpaid bill costs Mohali hospital ₹4 lakh
One can well imagine the plight of the family of the deceased, said the commission in its October 30 order, while directing Fortis Hospital, Mohali, and its managing director to jointly and severally pay compensation of ₹4 lakh, instead of ₹1 lakh awarded by the district consumer commission
Terming its act of withholding a patient’s body for four hours over pending payment “barbaric”, “illegal” and “inhumane”, the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Chandigarh, has dismissed Fortis Hospital’s appeals and instead increased the penalty by four times.
One can well imagine the plight of the family of the deceased, said the commission in its October 30 order, while directing Fortis Hospital, Mohali, and its managing director to jointly and severally pay compensation of ₹4 lakh, instead of ₹1 lakh awarded by the district consumer commission, for causing them mental agony, pain, humiliation and harassment, apart from deficiency in providing service, in-humanitarian attitude and adoption of unfair trade practice. Also, the cost of litigation was raised from ₹10,000 to ₹35,000.
The complaint by Sector 40 residents Bego Devi and her son Rajinder Singh against the hospital was first filed before the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. The medical officer of CGHS Wellness Centre, Sector 45, and additional director, CGHS Office, Sector 9, were also made party to the case.
The complainants through their counsel Pankaj Chandgothia submitted that Devi’s husband Surat Singh died at Fortis Hospital during surgery in December 2017.
As he was a beneficiary of Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), he was referred to Fortis by the CGHS officer. As per agreement, the entire cost of treatment was covered under the scheme.
The complainants submitted that the hospital raised a bill of over ₹2 lakh, which was directly payable through CGHS. But ₹58, 931 of the total amount was put towards patient’s share, as there was incidental finding of cancer.
Until this payment was cleared, Fortis Hospital refused to hand over the body. Left with no option, Surat’s son Rajinder Singh issued a cheque.
Later, through verification from CGHS authorities, Rajinder learnt that the demand was illegal, so he asked the bank to stop the payment.
As the cheque was dishonoured, the hospital moved court that issued summons to Rajinder, who eventually settled the bill.
A year after Surat’s death, CGHS authorities declared Fortis’ demand of ₹58, 931 illegal and imposed a penalty of ₹50,000 on the hospital.
Contesting the family’s complaint and CGHS order, Fortis Hospital informed the district commission that the amount demanded was towards the cost of high-end antibiotics used as there was incidental finding of malignancy, which was not part of the CABG package.
In November 2022, the district commission had granted a relief of ₹1 lakh to the family, following which both parties filed appeals before the state commission that has now raised the penalty by four times.
In box:
The act of Fortis Hospital of demanding ₹58,931 from the deceased’s family, which it was not entitled to; then not handing over the body till it received the cheque and also dragging the son of the deceased in criminal proceedings as the cheque was dishonoured is not only illegal, but squarely unethical, barbaric, inhumane, torturous and heinous for public at large. Thus, deficiency in rendering services, adoption of unfair trade practice, disturbing the peace of the dead and in-humanitarian approach is writ large on the part of Fortis Hospital.
The commission in its order
