Private hospitals go on fleecing spree as Bihar’s COVID-19 tally breaches 1-lakh mark

Raj Kishore Prasad, a resident of Kankarbagh locality in Patna, was admitted to a private hospital located on the Bailey Road in the state capital after he tested positive for COVID-19, for better treatment. He was neither put on a life-support system nor was he shifted to the ICU. The only thing he availed during the course of the treatment was an oxygen cylinder for just two days. His family was surprised when the hospital handed them out a bill of ₹3.20 lakh for just seven days!

Vikram Pratap, another COVID-19 patient had a similar story to tell. A resident of Patliputra Colony in the state capital, Pratap was admitted to another prominent private hospital located in his area. After just six days of treatment, his family was handed over a bill of ₹3 lakh. That was in addition to the money collected by the hospital for the PPE kits provided to the patient. The family of yet another patient admitted to another private hospital was asked to pay ₹2.50 lakh for his four-day treatment although the patient didn’t survive.

These are just a few examples of how private hospitals in Patna have literally gone on a fleecing spree during a deadly pandemic and right under the nose of the state administration.

Related news: Shoddy handling of COVID-19 lockdown in Bihar leave patients in the lurch

Even as the masses battle hard to save themselves from the deadly coronavirus, there have been numerous complaints of private hospitals charging exorbitant fees for treating COVID-19 patients in Bihar.

The government claims to have taken a serious note of such complaints, but there has been no action yet. “We won’t allow private hospitals to charge arbitrarily. The health department is looking into such complaints and we will fix the treatment rate very soon,” Bihar health secretary Pratyay Amrit said on Saturday.

Patna district magistrate Kumar Ravi said he had ordered an investigation into such complaints and stern action would be taken against the erring private hospitals based on the probe report. “We had asked the private hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients on humanitarian grounds at this critical time, but now we have received several complaints of exorbitant fees being charged by them. We have directed an additional deputy collector to identify such hospitals and take stern action against them,” Patna district magistrate Kumar Ravi informed. The investigation is still under progress.

Currently, 30 private hospitals in Patna have been granted permission to treat COVID-19 patients. It may be noted here that Patna remains the worst affected of all the 38 districts in the state with the maximum number of cases being reported every day. What is further alarming is that the COVID-19 cases have breached the 1 lakh-mark in Bihar—90,000 cases were reported in the past 44 days itself, amply indicating the gravity of the situation.

The treatment at private hospitals began early this month after the local administration, citing over-crowding at government hospitals, threatened to initiate severe legal action against them if they failed to set up COVID-19 wards in their respective premises. However, the situation has got complicated as the local administration is yet to fix the treatment fee at the private hospitals.

The general complaint is that these hospitals are charging around ₹4 lakh for just seven days of treatment of a single COVID-19 patient at the rate of ₹50,000 plus per day. Not only that, most of these hospitals have been asking the patients to deposit security money ranging between ₹50,000 and ₹1 lakh at the time of admission itself. The people have no option but to follow the “diktat” as the beds at government hospitals remain full.

What is strange is that the medicines and the oxygen cylinders that are being provided to the COVID-19 patients are not very expensive. Still, these hospitals have been handing out heavy bills in the name of admitting patients to the ICU and providing ventilator support, patients allege.

“The state government should immediately prepare the category of hospitals depending upon their locations and treatment facilities and fix the treatment fee. The sooner the better,” state Indian Medical Association secretary, Dr Sunil Kumar said.

According to an official report, the total beds for COVID-19 patients at all the government hospitals in Bihar currently are 32,124, but most of these beds remain full owing to the huge rush of the patients, prompting them to seek admission in private hospitals. The state has been reporting around 4,000 COVID-19 positive cases per day and the whole situation has turned critical since July.

It took 102 days to reach the 10,000-mark in the state but after that the cases have been multiplying very fast. In the past 44 days itself, the cases have multiplied ten times, indicating the severity of the situation.

COVID-19 cases which breached the 10,000-mark on July 2, reached 20,000 on July 16; 30,000 on July 22; 40,000 on July 27; 50,000 on July 31; 60,000 on August 4; 70,000 on August 7; 80,000 on August 10; 90,000 on August 12 and finally 1 lakh on Saturday (August 15), given high infection rate per day.

According to a report of the state health department, COVID-19 has claimed 515 lives and infected 1,01,906 persons till date, thus becoming the eighth state in the country to have reported more than 1 lakh cases. In the past 24 hours, the state has conducted a record 1.61 lakh sample tests. However, the majority of the tests are being conducted through Rapid Antigen kits while the number of per day tests being conducted through Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) is only around 6,100.

Related news: BJP treads carefully lest COVID crises dampen Bihar poll prospects

“The state government is fudging COVID-19 data to mislead the masses in view of the upcoming assembly elections in the state. This may ultimately prove disastrous,” commented state Congress spokesperson Prem Chandra Mishra.

“What is interesting is that some 3,000 case were being reported when the total number of testing was around 8,000-10,000. Now that the number of testing has crossed 1 lakh, the state is still reporting something around 4,000 cases per day! How could this happen?” asked Mishra adding the government’s “Kalakari” (fudging of data) would put the lives of the masses in serious danger.

Bihar opposition leader and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) legislator Tejashwi Yadav said Rapid Antigen tests were not authentic and suggested the government to increase the RT-PCR tests.