Private hospitals

The increasing number of people across Assam have been complaining against private hospitals and nursing homes for charging exorbitant amounts for the treatment of Covid patients in recent months. There have been reports in the media about families being compelled to sell off their property including flat and land to clear bills against treatment in private hospitals and nursing homes. Such complaints have been coming from various places, including Guwahati, Jorhat and Dibrugarh. In Guwahati, a family had to allegedly cough up about Rs 14 lakh to a private hospital for treatment of three Covid-positive persons, all of whom had remained hospitalized on an average for seven to eight days. In Jorhat, a private hospital had allegedly charged Rs 1,000 for a vegetarian meal and Rs 1,500 for a non-vegetarian meal supplied by the hospital. This was apart from inflated rates for the cabin, oxygen, doctor's fee and so on. Ideally, the High Court could have probably considered its intervention in such criminal acts of private hospitals in the form of a suo moto PIL registered based on media reports. A few affected families can still probably also directly write to the Chief Justice, and even the President and the Prime Minister, and obviously to state Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma with documentary evidence how private hospitals have fleeced them in the name of Covid treatment. It is however encouraging that Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma has constituted a committee of the State Health and Family Welfare department to examine the veracity of complaints that some private hospitals in the State have been charging inflated bills from the COVID-19 patients. As has been reported in the media, the Chief Minister has also said that the committee will submit its report on June 2, and that action would be taken against those private hospitals which will be found guilty. It will be interesting to note whether the committee will be able to hold any private hospital guilty of charging exorbitantly from the Covid-positive patients at such times of crisis. It is common knowledge that even in normal times very few people have pleasant experiences in private hospitals. Chief Minister Dr Sarma, who had handled the Health Department of the state for quite a long time, knows the functioning of hospitals – both private and government – inside out. Given this, it is hoped that the government takes stern steps against those private hospitals and nursing homes which have charges unbelievably high.