A private hospital in Bagbazar had complained to the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission that a post-dated cheque issued by a patient’s family had been dishonoured and the family has since refused to pay.
Eskag Sanjeevani, the hospital, has told the commission that the patient had been in the hospital for many days after being discharged because no one from the family came forward to pay the bill and take her home. It was then that a man turned up, identified himself as a relative and promised to clear the dues.
The man issued a post-dated cheque for Rs 4.5 lakh but it was dishonoured. When the commission approached the man who had issued the cheque to join a hearing on the complaint, he refused, said Ashim Banerjee, a retired judge and the chairperson of the commission.
On Wednesday, the commission told the hospital it was free to take legal action against the man. “The hospital can take legal action to recover the legitimate dues,” Banerjee said.
Digvijay Naik, administration head of the hospital, later told The Telegraph that the woman had been discharged on January 9. She finally left the hospital on March 6.
Banerjee said the patient’s daughter alleged that the hospital made her do the cleaning since they could not pay the dues. “The hospital denied the charge,” said Banerjee.
Officials of other private hospitals, who did not want to be named, said private clinical establishments are always at risk of facing such situations.
“Such instances are not many but not completely unheard of,” said an official. More common are instances of a patient’s family not paying the bills after the patient’s death. Another official said that in their hospital they always ask for electronic payment like NEFT or RTGS. “We also take bank drafts because there is no scope of those being dishonoured. When we accept cheques, we ask the patient party to hand them to us a few days before discharge,” he said.
Rs 5 lakh penalty
The commission on Wednesday imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on Samaritan nursing home on Elgin Road. “An arm of a man who was admitted there had to be amputated. The hospital was late in doing a surgical intervention. Also, they did not seek the help of a CTVS surgeon and neurosurgeon that could have helped,” said Banerjee.
