VIJAYAWADA: A number of private hospitals in the district are falsifying reports and diagnosing ordinary fevers as dengue in order to extract huge fee from people, Krishna Medical and Health Officer (DMHO) I Ramesh said.
“We are going to issue notices to all private hospitals. They will be told to produce details of all dengue, malaria and typhoid cases they have treated. We are also forming a four-member committee to study suspected dengue deaths and the deaths caused by other fevers,” he added.
Recently, a private hospital in Vijayawada, in the name of treating dengue fever, charged a patient more than Rs 35,000 for transfusion of platelets as the blood test conducted by the hospital’s laboratory showed that his platelet count had declined to 12,000. Suspecting the authenticity of the report, the patient’s relatives got his blood sample tested at another laboratory. The results showed that his platelet count was over 75,000.
When confronted, the doctors at the hospital told the patient to leave the hospital and refused to refund the money he had deposited with the hospital for treatment.
The relatives of the patient complained to the DMHO on Wednesday.
Responding to the complaint, Ramesh said, “There are many kinds of viral fevers and detecting malaria and dengue can be a little tricky. On one hand, the government is conducting awareness campaigns and on the other, private hospitals are looting people in the name of dengue. Soon, we will issue notices to all private hospitals and ask them to tell us the number fever cases they deal with every day. We would like to personally inspect the hospitals.”
As far as city’s government hospitals are concerned, 43 people are undergoing treatment for viral fever and around 10 cases were registered on Tuesday alone. The problem of insufficient number of beds in fever wards also needs to be addressed.
The number of viral fever cases are high in the areas of Avanigadda, Mylavaram and Vijayawada rural areas and the officials are monitoring all the necessary measures, Ramesh said.