Kalyan hospital gets show-cause notice for ‘violating state’s directions’ over treatment of Covid patients

In yet another case of action against private hospitals for violating the state’s directions over the treatment of Covid-19 patients, the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) on Monday served a show-cause notice to Shree Devi Hospital in Kalyan, allegedly for overcharging, not displaying the fixed rates and bed availability and for failing to co-operate with the civic body officials.

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Bala Shetty, the hospital’s owner, said, “We have received the KDMC notice and we will justify all the complaints mentioned in the notice with proper documentation.”

The civic body has asked the hospital to send their explanation and documents of all the discharged Covid patients, their contact details and bills in three days’ time.

The notice stated that the hospital charged a patient ₹1.77 lakh, including ₹49,810 for personal protective equipment (PPE), for 13 days. However, KDMC claims that according to its calculations, the total bill should amount to ₹1.16 lakh. KDMC said the per day cost incurred for PPE amounts to ₹1,000. “The hospital has charged ₹36,810 extra for the PPE kits, which is not permissible. The actual total bill should have been ₹1.16 lakh. We have asked the hospital for an explanation, based on which further action will be taken,” said a KDMC official.

KDMC also alleged that the hospital did not maintain details of 80% beds reserved for Covid-19 patients and also did not submit all the bills to them to KDMC auditors.