Kalyan civic body suspends licence of hospital for overcharging patients

In yet another crackdown on hospitals overcharging Covid patients, the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) suspended the licence of a hospital here on Friday.

In yet another crackdown on hospitals overcharging Covid patients, the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) suspended the licence of a hospital here on Friday. The civic body has also suspended the permission to treat the Covid patients in this hospital.

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As per the KDMC squad that monitors Covid hospitals and addresses the complaints against such hospitals in its vicinity, the hospital has overcharged charged patients for beds and PPE kits among other things.

“We have suspended the licence of the hospital till September 30 or till the overcharged money is refunded to the patients and other irregularities are rectified by the hospital,” said an officer of KDMC who did not wish to be named.

As per the civic body, the hospital charged Rs 1,980 for PPE kit while it is supposed to just charge Rs 1,000. After the auditing of bills, the civic body also found that the hospital had overcharged around Rs 6.93 lakh from Covid patients through three different bills.

“We have served notice to the hospital before the suspension asking it to explain its side. However, there was no response from its side,” added the officer.

After the suspension, the hospital will not be allowed to admit any new patient but will treat the existing patients. The civic body’s medical officer will be deployed at the hospital to keep a track.

Owner of the hospital said, “The hospital staff had informed me about the notice. We will figure it out soon. Earlier, when we received a notice we had replied to the civic body.”