Charity commissioner files affidavit in HC on beds for the poor

Despite reserving 90 beds for patients from indigent and economically weaker sections, KJ Somaiya Hospital and Research Centre treated only four poor patients for

Despite reserving 90 beds for patients from indigent and economically weaker sections, KJ Somaiya Hospital and Research Centre treated only four poor patients for Covid-19 since the imposition of the lockdown, Maharashtra charity commissioner RN Joshi said in an affidavit filed in Bombay high court (HC) on Friday.

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The charity commissioner, however, expressed difficulties in making any comment on the specific complaint of the petitioners of not being provided free of cost treatment at the hospital under indignant or weaker section categories, as none of them presented documentary evidence to reveal their income status.

The affidavit was filed pursuant to an order passed by a bench of justice RD Dhanuka and justice Madhav Jamdar after seven slum dwellers from Bharat Nagar, Bandra (West), in a petition alleged that the hospital, run by a charitable trust, collectively charged them ₹12.5 lakh for their Covid-19 treatment between April 11 and 28.

In the petition filed through advocate Vivek Shukla, the residents said they were also charged for anaesthetic services, even though it was not required for their treatment. Their petition also alleged that after their discharge from the hospital, they found that though the hospital is run by a charitable trust, owing to which it availed several facilities from the state government, but did not provide the mandatory free treatment to patients belonging to the lower strata of the society.

The petition is scheduled to come up for further hearing on June 23.