BENGALURU: Thirty-three-year-old Mahesh Kumar tested Covid-positive and was admitted to Aster CMI Hospital in Hebbal on September 29, on reference from BBMP, which meant that the government would cover the cost of his treatment. The hospital would then be reimbursed by Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust, as per procedure.
Five days later, he was set to be discharged, but suffered increased coughing, fever and vomiting of blood. His temperature was 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the staff asked him to wait it out for half an hour. In the meanwhile, his discharge summary was prepared. Owing to his condition, Kumar asked the hospital to extend his admission there. He was sweating at night as well.
A CT scan revealed that he had a lung infection. He was given injections, drips and tablets due to which his condition improved. He was later informed by the hospital that he will have to pay for his extended stay on discharge, as he was no longer covered under the BBMP quota. “The hospital said that they had already discharged me the first time and informed the BBMP about it.
I had to be “readmitted” as a new patient to extend my stay there. They said this would mean that I was a privately admitted patient and not referred from the government for free treatment. Owing to this, the staff informed me that I would have to pay Rs 11,000 per day from October 4 until my discharge on October 13. This will cost me up to Rs 1 lakh and I cannot afford it,” said Mahesh, who works in the accounts department of a private company in Bengaluru.
When he called up BBMP, they said nothing could be done about the situation. The hospital too responded similarly. He will now be charged on a technicality and does not know how he can mobilise funds by Tuesday. TNIE contacted Aster CMI Hospital on why the patient was discharged when he was still sick and why a CT scan was done only much later, when he was “readmitted” by them as a private patient.
A statement from the hospital spokesperson said, “The patient was admitted to Aster CMI Hospital for treatment of Covid-19 on September 29 at 3:24 pm under government allotted beds. He was tested on September 26 and test results were provided to him on September 28.
Post providing treatment, the patient was clinically stable on October 4 (after 8 days of him testing positive for Covid) and hence, was advised to be discharged with instructions for home quarantine for additional 14 days.” “He was put on discharge by the treating doctor in the morning and the same was uploaded on the government discharge portal.
However, in the evening when the patient was about to be discharged, he had a spike in fever and was readmitted to the ward for further continuation of treatment. We tried to reverse his discharge in the government portal but this wasn’t available as the portal works on real-time bed allotment,” the statement said. “As soon as there’s any vacant bed, it is allotted to another patient. We informed the patient about this issue and only after his approval, we continued the treatment under other category of bed,” the statement added.