MUMBAI: Not only did a Santa Cruz resident lose his 74-year-old father to Covid-19-related complications, but he was also left with a bill of Rs 16 lakh for his father’s 15-day ICU stay in a city hospital.
“I don’t think any middle-class person can afford treatment worth Rs 1 lakh per day. The bill has come as a huge shock to us,” said his son, who doesn’t want to be named.
Manpreet Sohal, the director of Nanavati Hospital, Juhu, where the patient passed away on April 15, denied the family’s allegations of overcharging. “The patient was brought to us in a very critical condition with multiple co-morbidities and multi-organ failure on March 31. Despite best clinical measures, he passed away,” he added.
With several families complaining of profiteering by private hospitals for Covid-related treatment, the state public health department last week issued a notification capping treatment charges for uninsured patients seeking treatment in private hospitals for both Covid and non-Covid ailments.
The deceased patient’s son said the bulk of the charges – Rs 8.6 lakh – were for medicine and consumables, while another Rs 2.8 lakh were “Covid charges”. “The authorities have capped certain charges, but hospitals seem to be charging arbitrarily’’, he alleged. While his father was in hospital, the family was under quarantine and couldn’t leave their home. The man is angry he was not given any indication by the hospital about the expenses they would incur.
“Communication with the hospital has been on phone and via email. I paid Rs 60,000 at the time of admission. A day later, I was informed that my father would have to put on dialysis and on ventilator. I gave consent electronically,” he said.
He said a couple of days before admission his father’s blood test results showed his blood serum creatinine (an indirect measure of kidney function) was normal. “Thereafter, the bill kept rising. I paid Rs 3.4 lakh and a couple of days later I received a call from the accounts department informing me that if I did not pay, they would stop treatment,” he said.
The hospital arranged to send his father’s body via ambulance to the crematorium, but he had to pay Rs 8,000 for the ambulance.
Nanavati’s Sohal said the patient had undergone a heart surgery earlier. After being admitted, he developed acute respiratory failure and needed ventilator support. “He also needed high-end Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy for kidney failure for seven days,’’ he added.
“The average bill of any patient with such complications and criticality would be Rs 1 lakh-plus per day in any hospital providing tertiary-care services. The bill amount is in line with standard charges for the duration and quality of clinical services extended to the patient,” Sohal added.