Health regulatory body pulls up 3 hospitals for irregularity in billing

Kolkata: The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission (WBCERC) has directed National Neurosciences Centre (NNC) in Peerless Hospital to refund Rs 73,000 to the family members of a patient whom it had charged exorbitantly flouting the advisories of the Commission.

Following a specific complaint, the WBCERC heard a case and found that the NNC which is a joint unit of Peerless Hospital and Neurosciences Foundation of Bengal did not provide discounts on the consumables and pathological charges of the patient as it has been instructed by the Commission in its series of advisories.

One Partha Pratim Chakraborty, a resident of Howrah admitted his father Pijush Kanti Chakraborty to the NNC on May 2 this year. The patient was admitted to the ITU.

The family members claimed that they were supposed to get corporate medical insurance but the hospital denied any corporate tie-up.

The WBCERC Chairperson Justice (retired) Ashim Banerjee said that the hospital had charged the patient for neurological treatment and also the critical care fees. Even the name of the doctor was not mentioned.

Around Rs 40,000 was taken from the patient as a service charge.

Consumables and pathological discounts were not given properly to the patient. The patient was later released from the ITU on March 12.

In another development, the WBCERC asked Life Line Diagnostic Centre, a private nursing home in the city, to return Rs 15,720 to the family members of a 58-year-old patient who died in the nursing home.

The Commission during the hearing found that the nursing home charged the patient’s family exorbitantly. Suman Das, a resident of Dhakuria admitted his mother Ruma Das to the nursing home on May 1 in 2021.

The patient died the very next day. The family members raised issues with the treatment for which the case was referred to the medical council.

The Commission found irregularities in billing and asked the nursing home to refund the amount.

The Commission has also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on a private nursing home in Siliguri for not providing documents relating to a case. Millennium Post