MEERUT
: A ruckus ensued after a private hospital here allegedly denied handing over the body of the deceased to the attendants demanding clearance of Rs 3 lakh dues.
Rajesh Bhatia, 55, a trader hailing from Pandav Nagar locality, was admitted to a city-based hospital on May 9 after testing positive for Covid-19. Later, he was shifted to a ventilator as his condition deteriorated.
Bhatia’s family, however, alleged that the hospital had put the patient on a ventilator after his death in a bid to extort money. Besides, an amount of Rs 1.05 lakh was added to the medicines that they had purchased from a chemist outside the hospital, they alleged.
The
Meerut district administration
, meanwhile, said the charges were being probed into.
“Initially, they were not ready to hand over the body saying the patient was put on a ventilator. But, when we told them that we could not afford the hospital services and wanted to shift the patient elsewhere, the hospital told us that the patient had died. They asked us to get a body bag,” said the patient’s niece Swati Bhatia.
Soon after the ordeal of the family was shared on social media, it merited the attention of Sanjeev Gupta, secretary, Inter-State Council Secretariat,
Ministry of Home Affairs
. “Additional CMO and SDM went to the hospital. They spoke to me after examining the bills. The cost of all medicines which were wrongly included in the bill has been removed and the issue has been resolved,” Gupta tweeted.
Meanwhile, the district administration has launched a probe into the charges levelled by the family. “I have ordered an additional district magistrate and assistant chief medical officer to probe the matter and submit a report,” said Meerut district magistrate K Balaji.
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