Madurai: Family made to sign Rs 1.5 lakh bond for Covid patient's body

Madurai: Family made to sign Rs 1.5 lakh bond for Covid patient's body

The relative said, “When we admitted him, they demanded us to pay Rs 2 lakh as a deposit amount to treat him. However, we were able to pay only Rs 90,000 initially.

Published: 06th May 2021 04:52 AM 

By Express News Service

MADURAI: Private hospitals fleecing patients during a pandemic is the curse of profiteering. One such hospital operating in the Pudur region of Madurai has allegedly made members of a family sign on a Rs 100 bond paper, with a promise to remit the pending dues in a month’s time, before handing over the body of their kin, who died of Covid-19, here on Wednesday. The hospital has also reportedly charged exorbitant fees to treat coronavirus patients.

After a three-member family, including the husband, the wife and their daughter, tested positive for the virus two weeks ago, they have been undergoing treatment in a private hospital in Pudur. A relative, speaking on anonymity, said the wife and daughter were admitted for two days at the hospital and they were charged around Rs 4.5 lakh in total. The amount was paid at the time of their discharge. While the husband was said to be in a serious condition, he was undergoing treatment for 14 days.

The relative said, “When we admitted him, they demanded us to pay Rs 2 lakh as a deposit amount to treat him. However, we were able to pay only Rs 90,000 initially. At the end of Day 14, he was declared dead. The bill amount was given as Rs 7 lakh for him alone, for those 14 days of treatment.

The hospital authorities denied us his body saying the dues were pending. He was the breadwinner of the family and neither did we have so much money. We requested them and brought down the bill to Rs 3.5 lakh. We paid Rs 2 lakh and signed a bond promising to remit the remaining Rs 1.5 lakh in a month’s time.” he said.

All bills would be verified and appropriate action taken: Collector

However, denying the allegations, hospital authorities, on condition of anonymity, said, “As there is a demand for oxygen supply in Madurai, we have to bring it in from other districts, for which, we pay double the amount. We are risking our lives to treat each and every patient. For the past 14 days none of the relatives of the deceased Covid patient came to the hospital. It was our staff, who took care of him completely. When asked for the fee, they took offence and started using foul language.”

Commenting on the incident, District Collector T Anbalagan said that an enquiry was underway. Answering to a question if the government has a mechanism to monitor the fees collected by private hospitals, he said, “Each patient’s condition may differ depending on the comorbid conditions. If they are being treated for such conditions, they would require certain medicines which might be of higher cost. It is inevitable.

However, in the said incident, all the bills would be verified along with patients’ chart and an appropriate action would be taken if the hospital is found to have charged an exorbitant fee.” The Tamil Nadu government on June 5, 2020 issued orders to cap the charges for Covid-19 treatment in private hospitals.

It may be recalled that Spain nationalised all of its hospitals when the coronavirus set in during the start of 2020, to provide equal preference and treatment to every citizen.

KK Shylaja the globally-acknowledged Health Minister from the neighbouring State of Kerala, recently in an interview, stated that, “If we are in power at the Centre, we would nationalise the healthcare system.” Because, that can be the only way forward to indiscriminately save human lives to prevent profiteering and prioritisation of haves over have nots.

வேலையை விட உயிர் முக்கியம் கதறும் வங்கி ஊழியர்கள்

DINAMALAR

வேலையை விட உயிர் முக்கியம் கதறும் வங்கி ஊழியர்கள்

Added : மே 05, 2021 23:00

சென்னை:வங்கி ஊழியர்கள், அதிகாரிகளுக்கு கொரோனா வந்தால், வங்கி கிளை முழுதும், கிருமி நீக்கம் செய்யப் படுவதில்லை; இதனால், மற்ற ஊழியர்களுக்கும் தொற்று பரவுவதாக புகார் எழுந்துள்ளது.

வற்புறுத்தல்

கொரோனா இரண்டாவது அலை, மிக வேகமாக பரவி வருகிறது.இதில், வங்கி ஊழியர்கள், வாடிக்கையாளர்களுடன் நேரடி தொடர்பில் இருப்பதால், அதிகம் பாதிக்கப்படுகின்றனர். 'வங்கிக் கிளைகளில், கொரோனா தடுப்பு முன்னெச்சரிக்கை நடவடிக்கைகள் பின்பற்றப்பட வேண்டும்; அரசின் நிலையான வழிகாட்டு நெறிமுறைகளை பின்பற்ற வேண்டும்' எனக் கூறப்பட்டுள்ளது.ஆனால், பெரும்பாலான வங்கிகளில், அதை பின்பற்றுவதில்லை. இதனால், ஊழியர்களிடையே தொற்று பரவல் அதிகரித்துள்ளது.

வங்கி அதிகாரிகள் கூறியதாவது:ஊழியர்களுக்கு சளி, காய்ச்சல் இருந்தால், விடுமுறை அளிப்பதில்லை. அவர்களை பணிக்கு வருமாறு, கிளை மேலாளர்கள் வற்புறுத்துகின்றனர்.

நடவடிக்கை

மேலும், ஒருவருக்கு தொற்று உறுதி செய்யப்பட்டாலும், கிளை முழுதும் கிருமி நீக்கம் செய்யப் பட வேண்டும்.ஆனால், பெரும்பாலான வங்கிகளில், கிருமி நீக்கம் செய்யப்படுவது இல்லை. இதனால், அந்த வங்கிக் கிளையில், பலருக்கு தொற்று பரவுகிறது. ஊழியர்களுக்கு உடல்நிலை சரியில்லை எனில், அவர்களுக்கு முதலில் விடுப்பு வழங்க, அனைத்து மேலாளர்களுக்கும், வங்கி நிர்வாகம் அறிவுறுத்த வேண்டும்.

பணிக்கு, 50 சதவீத ஊழியர்கள் வருகையை உறுதி செய்ய வேண்டும். அவற்றை பின்பற்றாத வங்கிகள் மீது, அரசு நடவடிக்கை எடுக்க வேண்டும். பணி முக்கியமானது தான், ஆனால், அதை விட உயிர் முக்கியம் என்பதை, வங்கிகள் உணர வேண்டும்.இவ்வாறு, அவர்கள் கூறினர்.

Hospital chasers: These families drove hundreds of kilometres to find beds

Hospital chasers: These families drove hundreds of kilometres to find beds

With beds scarce in cities, desperate relatives have been hiring expensive ambulances to take patients to smaller towns, sometimes in another state

Ketaki Desai & Sarfaraz Ahmed | TNN

06.05.2021

Nagpur resident Abhimanyu Pagade, a 22-year-old who works in an IT firm, drove his critically-ill Covid positive father Ramesh Pagade, a vegetable vendor, 460km to Warangal in Telangana in the intervening night of April 7 and 8. “He started having trouble breathing that night and his oxygen saturation was at 71. I tried all the numbers for hospitals in Nagpur and we almost got admission in one also but by the time I came back with the documents, someone else had used contacts to get the bed,” says Abhimanyu. His uncle who lives in Telangana arranged an ICU bed at a private hospital for Ramesh who was transported there in a life-support ambulance. A couple of days later, the Nagpur district administration too had shifted 12 patients to Amravati Super Speciality hospital, 150kms away, as the city faced acute bed shortage.

As Covid envelops most of the country’s big cities, residents are venturing to smaller cities and satellite towns in the hope of getting hospital beds — particularly ICU and ventilator beds. Sometimes, they travel hours in ambulances even when there is no guarantee that a bed awaits them.

Prabhdeep Singh, co-founder and CEO of StanPlus, one of the country’s major players in the ambulance space, says long-distance travel for beds has become increasingly common, particularly in Delhi NCR. “Every day we get phone calls with such requests. Because Delhi has immense capacity shortages, we are getting requests to go to Jhajjar, Panipat, Sonipat and Panchkula in Haryana, and Amritsar in Punjab,” he says, pointing out that this is a reversal of the ways in which healthcare has traditionally worked in India where people from smaller towns flock to big cities in hopes of specialised care. “If Bangalore and Hyderabad go the same way as Delhi, I think we will immediately see people rushing out of big cities,” he adds. In some cases, people also leave in order to go to their hometowns where they have family support.

Delhi-based Mayank Garg got a call from a close friend Rahul last week because his mother’s oxygen was at 85. Garg, who belongs to Bathinda, recommended that they go there. “Rahul convinced his mom, put the oxygen cylinder in the car and the three of us came to Bathinda and got a bed in five minutes. She’s now improving without a ventilator and is maintaining saturation of 95,” says Garg. He was talking to the family member of a patient at the hospital who asked where they had come from, remarking, “First people used to go to Delhi for treatment, now they’re coming to Bathinda.”

Sometimes, even this form of intervention is not enough. Even after trying for three days, Sanju Srivastava, 62, a resident of Jankipuram Extension, could not get a bed in any Covid hospital in Lucknow. The family rushed her to Etawah in a critical condition. “We couldn’t get any beds in a Covid hospital in Lucknow so with the help of a family doctor, we rushed her to a hospital in Etawah but she could not be saved,” says a relative of Srivastava.

People running helplines and Covid support groups have also noticed an uptick in this kind of movement. Vibha Pandey who runs Cases Gurgaon, a volunteer group, says she’s sent people to Pataudi, Rohtak and Sonipat. “Ambulances are charging as much as Rs 70,000 but people pay anything to save a life,” she says. Deepthi Sharma, who helps people get access to beds and other resources in Delhi NCR, recalls getting a phone call from a 10-year-old girl, begging for help to save her mother. “I pleaded with a doctor in Panipat who helped admit her there. She managed to recover.”

While the doctors were not too optimistic about the condition of Abhimanyu’s father, he has made a recovery. Dr Abhijan MPS, pulmonologist at Max Care Hospitals in Warangal, said their aim was to improve him without a ventilator. “Since he came from Nagpur, our responsibility was even greater. He had a very narrow chance but he made it,” says the doctor.

Abhimanyu, whose family is still in Warangal for follow-up treatment, estimates they’ve spent anywhere between Rs 4.5-5 lakh. “All that’s important is that he is okay.”

— With inputs from Pervez Siddiqui

Woman who gave birth before joining service gets maternity leave

Woman who gave birth before joining service gets maternity leave

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Jaipur:06.05.2021

In an important judgment, the Rajasthan high court has ruled that a woman who joined service just after delivery is entitled to maternity leave. The recent order of the single bench of Justice SP Sharma followed the state education department’s refusal to grant a woman maternity leave, claiming that such a leave is applicable to only in-service government servants.

Petitioner’s counsel Anoop Dhand said that his client was selected for appointment to the post of school lecturer (physics) on March 18 this year. The appointment letter directed her to join service before April 10. The petitioner joined service on March 22 at the government senior secondary School, Badgaon, in Jalore district. After joining service, she applied for maternity leave as she had given birth to a baby on January 4 this year through caesarean.

The recent order of the single bench of Justice SP Sharma of the Rajasthan high court followed the state education department’s refusal to grant a woman maternity leave, claiming that such a leave is applicable to only in-service government servants

Doctor’s guide for Covid-19 patients recovering at home

Doctor’s guide for Covid-19 patients recovering at home

With Scarcity Of Hospital Beds, Telemedicine Consultations On The Rise

Kamini.Mathai@timesgroup.com

06.05.2021

Don’t start on steroids too soon as it may worsen the infection ... No, antibiotics will not help with Covid-19 ... All day long, Dr Subramanian Swaminathan, director, Infectious Diseases and Infection Control, Gleneagles Global Hospitals, fields phone calls from anxious Covid positive patients.

With cases mounting and hospitals running out of beds, several of those infected by the virus have no option but to stay at home. “At least 90% of those who are positive do not require hospitalisation. A teleconsultation with a doctor can help identify the 10% who require further management,” says professor K Ganapathy, past president of Telemedicine Society of India.

In the past couple of months, the number of 1800 helplines, government and private telemedicine facilities, and at-home care services have increased exponentially to deal with the rising number of cases. At virtual medical consulting service Myhealthcare, the average number of calls received in a day is 2,000 — most of them related to Covid. The demand is such that they just launched a “virtual central command centre”, from where patients in home isolation across the country can be monitored through their smart phones. “Patients have access to a panic alert button, which triggers an immediate mobile consult,” says Shyatto Raha, founder of Myhealthcare.

Dr Subramanian’s first word of caution to those at home with Covid19 is: “Unless you are a considered a high risk individual (someone with comorbidities such as diabetes) it is better to wait for three or four days before you seek medical help. Until then, just take paracetamol and multivitamins.”

He also does not recommend administering steroids in the first few days. “If steroids are given in the phase when the virus is multiplying, it will stimulate the virus.” Inappropriate use of steroids in the early phase, he adds, may convert someone with a mild version of Covid into someone with a more severe infection. “We are sometimes forced to start steroids for people at home with borderline oxygen saturation and no hope of a hospital bed, but it is critical that the right dose is given,” says Dr Subramanian.

It is imperative that teleconsultation facilities follow recommended protocols from the Union health ministry and institutions like the Indian Council of Medical Research, says Dr Ganapathy. “The protocol that was in place a few months ago is not the same now. Patients shouldn't be afraid to question and clarify.”

In the case of antivirals and antibiotics which are being recommended, Dr Subramanian says, “None of the antivirals have been proven to save lives and there is no role for antibiotics in the treatment of Covid.” Monoclonal antibodies, which can help limit the progression of the infection, have to be administered within 48 hours of its onset, he says. The vaccine, he says, is the best armour against the virus.

At ₹6 lakh for 3 days, city hospitals bleed patients dry

At ₹6 lakh for 3 days, city hospitals bleed patients dry

Komal.Gautham@timesgroup.com

Chennai:06.05.2021

Anil Kumar Gupta, 66, spent ₹6 lakh for three days treatment of his Covid-positive son in two small private hospitals in the Nanganallur area. But his son couldn’t be saved. The patient had a heart issue too and the smaller hospitals weren’t equipped to deal with it. They told Gupta to take his son to a bigger hospital, but not before both hospitals made him pay ₹1 lakh deposit and another ₹1.5 lakh as treatment charges. All they did was give him a bed, Gupta told TOI.

“Another son is recovering in one of the private hospitals. I understand the situation is bad but hospitals and doctors I met behaved very rudely. One even pushed me out of his hospital,” Gupta said.

Sathish M* from Pursawalkam said two of his family members were admitted to a small private hospital. “They spoke about packages and said they would charge from insurance for eight days. Though my son could have been discharged on the seventh day, they delayed it. At a time when people are searching for beds, I didn’t find this humane, “ he said.

“Also, they charged separately for rooms, PPE kits and doctors fees though my son and my mother were in the same room. This came to more than ₹1 lakh extra,” he added.

Radhika R, of OMR, said she was charged for oxygen though she didn’t require it. “Moreover, they make us run around to buy medicines,” she said.

Sathish G, a social activist from OMR, said his friend in Adambakkam paid ₹1.5 lakh as miscellaneous charges for three days of hospitalization. “It wasn’t even an oxygen bed,” he said.

When TOI tried to contact the five private hospitals mentioned by these patients, three didn’t respond. Representatives of two hospitals, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they had no choice but to charge more as they had stopped all other surgeries and converted almost 80% of their beds for Covid patients. “I agree paying ₹1 lakh a day is too much. That needs to stop. But hospitals are desperate to earn. The government fixed ceiling of ₹15,000 a day will not cover our expenses. We cannot run at a loss,” said one of the doctors of a private hospital.

Director of public health Dr T S Selvavinayam and state health secretary J Radhakrishnan told TOI that they would take action on complaints that are formally lodged.

A senior health official told TOI that they were walking a tightrope. “We cannot crackdown on hospitals like we did last year as we don’t have enough beds. If we have 10,000 beds ready for patients, we can act. But we want private hospitals to increase their facilities and create more oxygen beds. So it is a tricky situation,” he said.

Suburban trains only for frontline, essential workers

Suburban trains only for frontline, essential workers

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:06.05.2021

As lockdown restrictions have been made stringent, Southern Railway has decided not to allow the general public, including students, to travel by suburban trains till May 20. Frontline workers and those employed in essential services sector are allowed to board the trains after showing their identity cards. The move will affect several people who work in nonessential sectors and depend on suburban trains to reach their workplaces in Chennai.

The railways has decided to restrict the category of people who can use the trains as the state government has announced that buses and trains should be run with 50% of occupancy.

A statement from the railways said railway staff, authorized essential services staff such as health, law and order, sanitation workers, municipal corporation workers, staff of all Centre, state government departments and PSUs, staff of the Madras high court judicial bodies and quasi-judicial bodies including lawyers, travel and logistics workers including those in Chennai Port Trust, Kamarajar Port Trust, staff of e-commerce companies on duty, print and electronic media, staff of nationalized, private and co-operative banks, and staff of private security agencies will be allowed to travel by the trains.

Students and staff of educational institutions, which remain closed, will not be permitted to take the trains.

Counters will be set up to sell reserved and unreserved tickets with 50% of staff, though people are encouraged to book tickets online.

K Baskar, former member, divisional rail users consultative committee, said this move puts jobs at risk. “People who work in private companies will lose their jobs if they cannot reach office. Those Many passengers who live in the suburbs use suburban trains to reach Arakkonam, MGR Central, Egmore and Tambaram stations to board mail/express trains. They should be allowed to use the services.”

BARE MINIMUM: All frontline workers, essential services staff will have to show their identity cards to board trains