Wednesday, 27 October 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Dehradun resident and social worker Abhinav Thapar will start a state-wide campaign to raise awareness among those who were allegedly overcharged by private hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic in Uttarakhand to enable them to claim the refund. Thapar said that many people who were admitted to private hospitals for the treatment of Covid-19 disease were charged exorbitant fees. He alleged that many hospitals did not even hand over the dead bodies to the guardian till they paid those charges. “The Central Government determined on June 2020 how much a private hospital can charge Covid patients for the treatment.
The Uttarakhand Government implemented the same here on September 2, 2020, but many continued to overcharge for the treatment that further weakened the affected families financially,” stated Thapar. He said that considering such issues, he had filed a petition in the Supreme Court. He informed that the court has recently issued a notice to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to take cognisance of such irregularities, audit the Covid-19 hospitalisation bills and has asked the government to present its side before the court by next month. He said that 3.44 lakh people got infected with Covid-19 in the state so far out of which, many spent all of their money on the treatment in private hospitals. “We want those victims to have their money back who had to pay exorbitant fees unnecessarily. Many private hospitals have already paid Rs three crore in Pune and Rs six crore in Telangana to thousands of such victims who were overcharged against the rules. We want such people here to get their hard-earned money back too,” stated Thapar.
He added that though the healthy department here is also helping such victims to get their money back, not many are aware of it. He said that those who were overcharged by the hospitals can contact him and other associated social workers at the helpline number 987087913.
