Kolkata, March 11 -- The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission (WBCERC) on Wednesday directed the Director of Health Services (DHS) in the state health department to form a high-power committee to scrutinise a bill of Rs 26.64 lakh which ILS Hospital in Howrah had imposed on a patient's family.
The WBCERC Chairperson Justice (retired) Ashim Banerjee said that the patient, a 50-year-old woman, was admitted to ILS Howrah on December 14 and she died on January 16 this year. The patient remained admitted at the hospital for 33 days.
The hospital slapped a bill of Rs 26.64 lakh but no surgical interventions were involved. The patient was charged around Rs 80,000 per day.
"We sought a justification from the hospital about the exorbitant bills but the authorities failed to provide any satisfactory answer to our queries. No surgical interventions were carried out in the patient. Only some minor procedures occurred. We found that hospitals charged hefty prices for clinical investigation. It was also found that several doctors examined the patient multiple times," Banerjee said.
"We have also asked the DHS to form a committee to examine the bill. It will scrutinise the bill and compare them with medical records. On the basis of the report by the committee the decision will be taken. The hospital will have to refund the excess amount to the patient's family members," he added.
The Health Commission chairman also stated that they came across a similar case in ILS Hospital Dum Dum which had also imposed an exorbitant bill on a patient during Covid time. He also said that the commission has taken zero tolerance in such cases.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.