KOCHI: Coming down heavily on the state government, a division bench of the High Court on Wednesday suspended the implementation of a new government order that allowed private hospitals to decide the rate of other categories of beds, like private rooms and suites, for Covid patients.
The court passed the order on a petition filed by Kerala Private Hospitals Association (KPHA) seeking to review an earlier High Court directive to the state government to fix Covid treatment charges in private hospitals.At the hearing, the government pleader submitted that a new order had been issued allowing private hospitals to fix their own room rents for Covid patients.
However, the bench comprising Justice Devan Ramachandran and Justice Kauser Edappagath observed what the government had now done was to allow private hospitals to fix any rate for the rooms and suites, doing away with the laudatory objectives of its first order issued on May 10.
Allowing pvt hosps to charge rates on their own serious: HC
Kochi: It was clear from the earlier order that the rates fixed for beds included all corollary charges like nursing, boarding, doctors fee and the like, it said, adding that the new order had now empowered the hospitals to return to the earlier situation in charges, albeit with the condition that such rate be displayed prominently. “We are of the view that such a display would be of no avail to an ordinary person who approaches for Covid treatment, since, at the time, he would really have no choice, his life being in peril,” observed the bench. The court observed that the government’s action in allowing private hospitals to charge their own rates for rooms and suites was very serious.