Nagpur, April 7
Nag Vidarbha Chamber of Commerce (NVCC), the largest trade organisation
representing 13 lakh traders has resented exorbitant charges being levied by hospitals from Covid-19 patients.
In a representation to the municipal commissioner Radhakrishnan B, NVCC president Ashwin Mehadia, secretary Ramavatar Totla and convenor of direct tax committee of NVCC Sandeep Jotwani said for the past few days NVCC has been receiving complaints from its members that hospitals are not complying with the guidelines framed by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) with regard to collection of the charges.. Also, patients having cashless Mediclaim are also not being entertained and there has been a trend to collect exorbitant amount as advance at the admission stage itself, NVCC office-bearers said ‘we understand that regular audits of hospital bills is being done by NMC and inspite of this if hospitals are involved in such malpractice, there is a need to find out the reason behind such complaints’. This is despite the fact that guidelines have been framed by the NMC with regard to collection of charges by the hospitals for treatment of Covid- 19 patients and also regular audit of hospital bills is also being conducted which was beneficial to the citizens and has proved successful in safeguarding the interest of masses against any malpractices in charging the inflated hospital bills.
A consultant to private and government hospitals on the condition of anonymity said as per NMC guidelines, the private hospitals should charge Rs 9500 per bed from patients admitted in ICU. These charges do not include doctors’ visiting fee, nursing charges, diet charges, charges for disposables, catheterization, intubation, remdesivir injections and others. Hence, it is only a matter of conjecture as to how the doctors might be exploiting the situation to their advantage, she said.
Under such a situation it is high time to adopt strict measures to control these malpractices and appoint a hospital internal auditor to supervise and resolve issues being faced by the citizens at the hospitals. ‘On behalf of thousands of traders,, professionals and above all the common citizens, we urge you to safeguard the needs and rights of the masses’, Ashwin Mehadia said.
GAL