Hyderabad: A private hospital in New Bowenpally has been issued a show cause notice by the state government on allegations of death due to medical negligence by a citizen from the city. The notice was given to Raghavendra hospital, based on a complaint to the state Public Health and Family Welfare department.
In fact, the deaceased’s son, Sumanth Saadam, also took to Twitter and tagged state IT and industries minister KT Rama Rao and alleged that the hospital management also tortured him. “@KTRTRS sir,my father passed away due to negligence of raghavendra Hospital New Bowenpally. They had tortured us to pay money and told us to take him away when my father is in a critical condition.These kind of hospitals need to face consequences for playing with lives of patients,” his tweet said.
KTR, in response to Sumanth’s tweet, tagged Dr. G. Srinivasa Rao, director of Telangana’s Public Health and Family Welfare department and asked to initiate action if the accusations are true. This is however not the first time that patients or their families have complained of excess billing and even medical negligence. More than a week ago, the license of a private hospital in Hyderabad was cancelled, while a few others were issued show cause notices, based on complaints by citizens.
“My father was infected with COVID-19, and his oxygen levels dropped to 90. We were trying to find hospitals with oxygen support, and shifted him to Sai Sanjeevani hospital at Kukatpally on May 6. We spoke to doctors there virtually initially. But on the second day, a doctor told us that my dad needed Remdesivir, which he claimed was available at Raghavendra hospital.
“We were not in Hyderabad then, and were in Khammam. Without our consent he admitted my father at Raghuveera hospital. The doctor named Yashwant, claimed my father agreed to it, and even told us after the admission. We were helpless and said okay. After that they started torturing us everyday. Yeshwant said the whole treatment would cost Rs. 3 lakh,” Sumanth told Siasat.com.
He added that Raghuveera hospital charged his family Rs. 90000 per day, plus added costs. Sumanth recalled that the doctor began arguing about the payment soon. “We paid the hospital about Rs. 7 lakh in total for a treatment of 11 days. One of our relatives in Hyderabad took my father to the hospital at Kukatpally. Each day, Yashwant would call us and ask us to pay Rs. 1 lakh a day. He blackmailed us saying he would stop the treatment,” Sumanth said.
Eventually, fed up of all this, Sumanth tagged KTR earlier and put all this out on Twitter. “KTR’s team called on May 17 and said there was a bed available at TIMS in Gachibowli. We spoke to the MD of Raghavendra hospital, who told us to take the patient and said they would not give us any reports. So on the last day at Raghavendra, we paid Rs. 1.5 lakh, and took my father to TIMS. The doctors at TIMS asked us for his COVID-19 reports, but the MD instead asked me to remove my tweets first and to ‘talk positively’ about his hospital,” the young man claimed.
Finally, the reports were never given to Sumanth’s father, who died on May 17 at TIMS, some hours after he was admitted. Shockingly, Sumanth also claimed that the doctor named Yaswant even asked his family if they had properties they could sell. “We have all this on record,” said Sumanth, who is a B.Tech final student studying at Vardhaman college.
Over the last month or so, private hospitals across Hyderabad, which are running full due to the explosion of COVID-19 cases, have been fleecing patients. In most cases, families of patients are being asked to pay anything between Rs. 30000 to Rs. 1 lakh per day for each bed, depending on the need for oxygen cylinders, or ventilators, and other medical aid.