KADAPA: Amid ongoing crisis of shortage of beds for Covid patients, private Covid hospitals in the district have stopped admitting new cases alleging official harassment. The private managements put ‘No Admission’ boards in front of their hospitals on Thursday.
The move comes a day after vigilance sleuths conducted raids on private Covid hospitals in the district. They found that KCH Hospital and Komma Hospital were charging Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 per day for a Covid patient in Intensive Care Unit and Rs 3,000 per day for supply of oxygen in violation of the rates fixed by the State government.
The police registered cases against the two hospitals under Section 420 (cheating) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code. A staffer of KCH Hospital was arrested during the raid.The district administration has permitted 11 private hospitals to treat Covid cases. Of the total, eight hospitals are located in Kadapa town and the remaining in other parts of the district.
Following complaints against the hospitals that they were charging exorbitant rates from patients and demanding lakhs of rupees as advance to admit new cases, Joint Collector CM Saikanth Varma inspected the hospitals and found irregularities in their functioning. He imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh each on the two hospitals.
The private hospital managements took serious objection to Wednesday’s vigilance raids and took the matter to the notice of the local unit of the Indian Medical Association. Later, the private managements announced that they would not admit new Covid patients.
It is learnt that some district officials and even ruling YSRC leaders tried to negotiate with the hospital managements and prevail upon them to continue treating Covid patients amid the crisis. But the private hospital managements did not relent.
Speaking to the media, IMA district president Shyamsunder Reddy and general secretary Kuldeep alleged that the medical and health, ICDS, police and vigilance officials were conducting inspection of private hospitals on a daily basis.
“It is not proper to harass us when we are extending services to Covid patients during the crisis,” they said and added that they would meet the District Collector on Friday, seeking an end to “official harassment”.