Kolkata: The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission has penalised a private medical facility which had allegedly refused to admit a COVID-19 patient without an advance of ₹3 lakh. The patient, a 60-year-old woman, subsequently died. The hospital has been directed to cough up ₹10 lakh.
“Ideally, the hospital’s license should have been cancelled for this. But since many patients were still being treated and there are no other allegations of negligence, we didn’t want to take such a step. We have directed the hospital to deposit ₹10 lakh while the case is being heard,” retired judge Ashim Kumar Banerjee, the chairman of the commission, was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
The hospital has been barred by the commission from taking any advance deposit while admitting COVID-19 patients, Banerjee added.
The 60-year-old woman died on August 10, allegedly while waiting in an ambulance outside the private medical facility in east Kolkata. According to her son, the hospital demanded ₹3 lakh as an advance payment, without which the hospital authorities refused to admit her. While the family took an hour to arrange the money, the woman passed away in the ambulance itself.
“This is the first case in which the commission took suo moto cognizance. It was inhuman and very unfortunate,” Banerjee said.
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