Private hospital held Covid victim's body till bills were cleared: NGO

NAGPUR: A private hospital allegedly refused to hand over the body of a Covid-19 positive patient to relatives for the funeral over clearance of bills. The hospital had continued to treat the positive patient for seven days even though it lacks permission for Covid-19 services, and was also treating non-Covid patients in the same building.

The patient (53-year-old female from Balaghat district in MP) died at 10.15am on Friday and her funeral took place only at around 11pm.

Divisional commissioner Sanjeev Kumar and municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe have appointed NGO Together We Can to create awareness among people and also help positive patients and their relatives in case of any problems. The NGO said the patient was admitted at the private hospital on Amravati Road, Wadi, on July 26 for some swelling in kidney and pneumonia.

As per norms, the hospital was supposed to get the patient tested for Covid on the first day. The laboratory with TOI shows the swab sample was collected on August 1, and positive report received on August 2.

NGO president Joseph George told TOI, “The patient’s family complained about hospital refusing to hand over body till the bill was cleared. Relatives claimed it charged Rs30,000-40,000 per day since admission. After a doctor at the hospital refused our request to give possession of the body, even though it was a Covid-19 patient, I informed the officials.”

George said, “The relatives contacted some politician to get the bill settled at around 6.30pm.”

One of the hospital doctors refused to give the hospital’s version of the events, and directed TOI to speak to the hospital owner, but refused to give his contact number.

Wadi police said there was no complaint from any relative of the deceased.

A major violation by the private hospital was continuing treatment of positive patient in same building where inpatients and non-Covid OPD patients were being treated. As per norms, the hospital has to seek permission and set up Covid-19 isolation ward as per ICMR guidelines.

District civil surgeon VD Paturkar, who is nodal officer for Covid-19 for entire district, confirmed to TOI he did not give the hospital permission to continue treatment of positive patient.

Collector Ravindra Thakre said, “The hospital should have given possession of the body. I have asked the tehsildar to verify the bills, and whether there was a delay in giving possession of body over the bill. I also directed him to verify whether bills were above the government approved rates.”

Thakre, however, justified the private hospital’s decision to continue treatment of positive patient. “My officials said the patient was on ventilator and could not be moved to government DCH. The hospital had contacted GMCH for admission but was told to continue treatment,” he said.

Many other patients have been shifted on ventilator from private hospitals to government-run DCH for treatment as per ICMR protocols, to prevent spread of the disease.

Even after the hospital handed over the body, there was confusion among staffers of Wadi Municipal Council, hospital and police. Instead of directly taking the body for funeral, the body was taken to IGGMCH at around 8pm, where doctors had to explain the procedure. Then, NMC employees were called and the body was taken for funeral at 11pm.