The state clinical establishment regulatory commission on Monday asked Belle Vue Clinic to pay Rs 2.7 lakh for overcharging a patient and negligence.
The patient was admitted to the hospital with Covid in 2021.
The hospital was asked to return Rs 2.14 lakh after the commission found that the patient had been overcharged, Ashim Banerjee, a retired judge and chairperson of the commission, said during a news conference.
The commission has also asked the hospital to pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 because a pulmonologist whose advice was sought came three days after the doctor was contacted. The commission felt that the late arrival of the pulmonologist at a multi-speciality hospital amounted to negligence on the part of the hospital, Banerjee told The Telegraph.
“In total, we asked Belle Vue Clinic to return Rs 2.70 lakh, which is a round figure,” the chairperson said.
“We have found the hospital deficient on two or three counts,” he said.
He told this newspaper that the hospital did not follow the commission’s advisory while preparing the bill for the medicines prescribed for the patient.
“The advisory was not followed for 17 costly medicines. The commission’s advisory says that unless otherwise mentioned by the doctor, the hospital must provide cheaper medicines with the same composition,” Banerjee said. The patient was also overcharged for consumables, he said.
Belle Vue chief executive officer Pradip Tondon said: “We purchased and used high flow oxygen machines during Covid, which cost more than the usual oxygen supply. In the bill, however, we mentioned it as only oxygen. The commission, therefore, asked us to return the money charged for it.”
Tondon said rules did not permit charging separately for oxygen in the intensive care unit, but the hospital had charged the patient for the high-flow machines. “The commission told us to change the nomenclature for future billing,” he said.
The patient’s wife had given a letter to the hospital that she had no grievances about the treatment, but his sister lodged a complaint with the commission, Banerjee said.
“The hospital will spend the money for the orphanage that is situated at the Ramakrishna Mission, Rahara,” Banerjee said.
