Coronavirus in Tamil Nadu: Covid-19 treatment licence of Arupukottai hospital suspended

MADURAI: Virudhunagar district collector R Kannan on Saturday suspended the Covid-19 treatment licence of a private hospital at Aruppukottai for overcharging patients.
According to a press release, an inspection was held in the hospital during which it was found that a Covid-19 patient was charged Rs 7.40 lakh for treatment. Also, no additional special medications recommended by the government were given to the patient.
Following this, the licence was suspended by the collector.
The collector said all private hospitals should display their Covid-19 treatment fee prominently. “If they are found to be charging patients beyond the permitted limit, strict action will be initiated against them,” he said.
The Tamil Nadu government issued Covid-19 protocols and licence for private hospitals to treat patients to deal with the rising number of cases.
The government issued a GO which mentioned two categories of treatment – grade A1/A2 and grade A3/A4. Under the first category, hospital could collect a maximum daily fee of Rs 7,500 and under the second category, Rs 5,000 per day could be collected from Covid-19 patients.