WBCERC cracks whip on four private hospitals; instructs them to pay compensation and refund
West Bengal: Cracking a whip on four famous private medical facilities of West Bengal, the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission (WBCERC), in its recent set of decisions, has instructed two private facilities to give compensation to the patient's family and two other to initiate a partial refund of the bills immediately.
The private facilities were held guilty by the commission several inconsistencies, from medical negligence to overchargging of patients. The hospits that came under the radar of WBCERC and received instructions include Fleming Hospital, ILS Dumdum, AMRI MUkundupur and Charnock Hospital.
In the first case, Fleming Hospital was charged with medical negligence in connection with the case of a patient who was admitted there on 10th December 2019. The complainant alleged that his wife who was admitted to the ICU of the hospital was not properly attended by the doctors and medical staff. He further allerged that one of the ICU nurses were found sleeping outside the ICU room when the oxygen mask of the patient allegedly slipped from its position. When the attendant tof the patient noticed it, they informed the nurse after which she came back and fixed it again. There was gross medical negligence on the part of the facility as one of the doctors claiming as one Dr. Biswas allegedly was found to be an unqualified doctor. After considering the submission, the commission instructed the facility to deliver a hefty compensation amount of Rs 1 lakh to the patient's family.
In another case, a patient who was admitted to the ILS Dumdum alleged that the medical facility has charged excessively during his 10 days of stay in the facility for COVID treatment. The hospital has allegedly charged for 36 PPE kits and also charged 350 rupees per mask. The hospital submitted a bill of almost 58000 rupees. Justice retired Ashim k Banerjee, the Chairperson of WBCERC has instructed the facility to justify themselves and also instructed it to initiate a refund of 40000 rupees immediately.
Meanwhile, another complainant alleged that AMRI Mukundapur charged him 9000 rupees for isolation bed and 13000 rupees per day for ICU bed when the patient was admitted in the hospital due to gallbladder complications for four days. The commission has instructed the hospital to give a discount of 4000 rupees per day on bed charges. Hence, a refund of 16000 was sought from the facility.
In another case of medical negligence, Charnock Hospital was instructed to pay 50,000 compensation by the commission after it considered a case in connection with a Jharkhand-based 67 year old patient. The complainant alleged that the patient was admitted in the hospital in a disoriented condition but the hospital did not arrange any pulmonologist for the patient. Moreover the patient also needed a blood transfusion but the hospital informed that their blood bank does not have the required blood and they need to arrange it by themselves. There was severe errors in the death certificate of the patient as well; for instance the age was not mentioned. After considering all the submissions, the commission decided to impose a compensation of 50,000 Rs on the facility.
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