Maha: IMA writes to CM after TMC suspends licence, revokes COVID facility status of Thane Hospital

Maharastra: Criticising the Thane Municipal Corporation decision of suspending the license of a private hospital, the Indian Medical Association has recently submitted a letter to the chief minister stating that such harsh treatment and the sudden cancellation of a COVID facility can bring problems in the handling the pandemic.

Thane Municipal Corporation had suspended the license of a Horizon Prime Hospital for one month and also cancelled its position as a COVID-19 facility on account of overcharging the patients for COVID treatment while violating the state guidelines. It was observed that the COVID-19 death rate at the hospital was high. The facility, located in the Kamatghar area, also did not have specialist doctors to treat the patients and lacked physicians, Bhiwandi Nizampur Municipal Corporation's medical officer of health Dr Nitin Mokashi said.

It did not follow treatment protocols of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), hence it was decided to strip the hospital of its status as a COVID-19 treatment facility, he said.

This came after the TMC had organized an audit team for monitoring the private hospitals and their billing process to ensure that no facilities are overcharging. HT reports that after examining many of the private hospitals the team found 196 excess bills all over the city where the patient has been wrongly charged and notices have been submitted to 15 private COVID facilities accordingly.

Read Also: No specialists, High death rate, violation of ICMR guidelines, overcharging; Maha Hospital stripped of COVID-19 facility status

Sandeep Malvi, the deputy municipal commissioner, had informed HT, "We had received complaints from several patients that this hospital overcharged them. Accordingly, our audit committee set up to look into the bills generated by all COVID Hospitals in the city checked the bills imposed by the hospital. A total of 797 patients were treated at this hospital until July 12. Of the 57 bills submitted by the hospital for the audit, 56 were found to be exorbitant. An excess of ₹6,08,900 was charged in these 56 bills."