A womanhas alleged she was made to pay Rs 1 lakh a day at a private hospital (Representational)

Hyderabad:

Complaints over excessive billing, mismanagement has led to cancellation of 10 Telangana hospitals’ licences to treat COVID-19 patients.

The Office of Director of Public Health and Family Welfare of Telangana on Saturday also issued notices to 79 hospitals over the issue.  

A woman was forced to shift her Covid positive son on non-invasive ventilator support from a private hospital to the government-run Koti Hospital at Hyderabad as she was billed Rs 1 lakh per day at the private facility. The woman said she could not pay the money even after selling her house.

“We are poor. We simply could not afford it. So I moved him here,” said Pochamma.

The Telangana government has capped rates to be charged by hospitals for different Covid treatment protocols. However, hospitals appear to be violating the same.

Virinchi Hospitals lost its licence to treat Covid patients for the second time, on this occasion over a complaint of medical negligence.

On Thursday, relatives of a patient barged into the hospital and allegedly attacked the doctor who had treated a 35-year-old Covid patient, Vamsi Krishna. He died in the same hospital two weeks later.

“Why did they give strong steroids, wrong medicines to my brother when he only had a mild disease? Why did they offer to refund our money?” Sashi Vangala, sister of Vamsi Krishna, asked.

A police case has been filed against the 16 people who allegedly assaulted the doctor.