Srikakulam: Corporate hospitals once again start fleecing patients

Srikakulam: Once again the private corporate hospitals in the district started exploitation of patients in the name of special treatment, beds and isolation rooms with rapid rise in cases in second wave of Covid-19. Earlier, in the Covid first wave also, most of the private corporate hospitals have exploited the patients in the name of special packages violating all established government norms and guidelines. The hospitals

managements had fixed Rs 3 lakh as fee for admission of patient at that time. Officials also failed to prevent the exploitation due to lax attitude. Again, complaints poured in regarding unauthorised admission of patients at corporate hospitals in the district. Normally, covid patients have to admit into government hospitals and government notified private hospitals. If any patient interested to admit into private corporate hospital, he has to obtain permission from the concerned government hospital medical officer. The government medical officer will give his nod only when the patient needs a special treatment. However, without following these norms, corporate hospitals' managements are exploiting the patients indiscriminately and charging exorbitant fees. Officials received complaints regarding exploitation of corporate hospitals Unique, Golivi and Medicover in the district. Responding on the complaints, District Collector J Nivas and Joint Collector K Srinivasulu expressed their anger and warned the managements of private corporate hospitals with stern action if they admit any patient without following rules and collect amount more than the fixed fee.

On the other hand on Saturday alone, the district reported 662 positive cases. With this, the administration has announced containment zones in Srikakulam city to prevent further spreading of the disease.