Hospital refunds SAST patient’s family
ByPragna L KrupaPragna L Krupa / Updated: Jul 10, 2021, 06:00 IST
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In June, a family lost their only earning member, Madan, to covid as they struggled to pay for his treatment.
Vishwakarma Madan was admitted to the
Vydehi Hospital through
Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST), a free programme for citizens. At that time, the hospital had charged them for some medicines in the garb that SAST did not cover all the treatment. The hospital’s nodal officer had said that action would be taken against the hospital and the family should get a refund. After BM reported the incident, the deceased’s family was able to receive a refund from the hospital.
senior officer said that SAST received a few complaints against these private hospitals based on which the health department issued them the notice asking them to share the details of all the patients and their bills. “We have given them three days to get back to us with the bills and if they fail to, we will take action against them.
This lag in updating information is causing some delay in allocating beds by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) War Room, say patients’ families.
Victoria’s dirty secret
Testing positive for covid is a nightmare in itself but for some
patients like Mamatha KS, a resident of
Kumaraswamy layout, her stay in a hospital, under the
Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST) quota, was worse than the symptoms of the infections. Her father too had a hard time as a patient in the SAST quota, she says.
Mamatha said she got admitted to
Victoria Hospital on April 27th after her oxygen saturation dropped to 82, and her
HRCT severity score was 15/25. While her admission formalities to a general covid ward were underway, she says she was given a bed where an elderly woman who was occupying it had died due to covid. “I was told that the elderly patient had collapsed in the bathroom and there was no one to help her. Three patients from the ward told me that they brought her back to her bed and later she was declared dead by the doctors. Her body was placed on the floor next to me for nearly a day,” said Mamatha, still shocked by t