HYDERABAD: Nearly 2,046 beds for critical and moderate cases of Covid-19 now cease to exist after Telangana government cancelled the permits of 22 hospitals within the last four days. On Tuesday as well, in a drastic move to curb excess charges levied by hospitals, the Health Department cancelled permits for treatment of Covid-19 for two major corporate hospitals in the city. This includes Sunshine Hospital in Gachibowli and KIMS Hospital in Secunderabad.
These two alone contributed majorly to the beds availability in the State with 231 and 539 beds respectively.Apart from these two, Century Hospital in Banjara Hills, Lotus Hospital in Lakdikapul, Medisys Hospital in LB Nagar and Integro Hospital in Rethibowli were also put under suspension from Covid-19 treatment.
While the move is winning all round praise as it takes away the chance from hospitals to make more money, the citizens are asking why the government is not making the hospitals refund those patients who were charged in excess. In fact, the Telangana High Court, earlier in the day wanted to know from the government why it had not taken any steps to ensure refunds of the exorbitant fee collected by the private hospitals.
“I was charged Rs 5 lakh for my brother’s admission. After four days, the hospital asked us to just take him away when they could not do anything anymore. He died within five hours of re-admission into a new hospital,” said Syed Khadar Pasha, brother of a Covid victim from Zaheerabad.