The Brihanmumbai Corporation on Friday, July 31, suspended the license of a private hospital in Mahim after it had been overcharging patients suffering from the coronavirus for a month.
The order against Family Care Hospital follows the death of a 34-year-old man within 24 hours of admission in the hospital. The day after his death, his test results indicated that he was actually tested negative for COVID-19. Moreover, the hospital denied all allegations of irregularities and overcharging.
The BMC, speaking about the incident stated that several complaints had been received against the hospital in the past with regards to overcharging. The civic body had issued a show-cause notice as the hospital admitted to overcharging. Despite this, they did not stop taking exorbitant amounts from COVID-19 patients. Therefore, the BMC decided to suspend their license for 30 days under the Bombay Nursing Homes Registration Act, 1949.
In the past, four private hospitals in Borivali was asked to stop treating cases of coronavirus following multiple complaints of the patients being overcharged. Bhagyashree Kapse, assistant municipal commissioner of R-Central ward, in a statement, said that the BMC had stopped operations at the Apex hospital located at the Chandavarkar Road as well as Babhai, Mangal Murti Hospital in Gorai and the Dhanashri Hospital in Borivali from treating patients suffering from the coronavirus.
On July 29, the Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation had banned the Galaxy Hospital in Mira road from treating COVID-19 patients. The Municipal Corporation has also asserted that the overcharged amount will be recovered for the people by the civic body.
With the private hospitals overcharging COVID-19 patients across the city, civic bodies are launching crackdowns in order to ensure that the medical institutions stop swindling the patients suffering from the contagious disease.
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