Big allegation of family members on Medanta Hospital: ‘Playing with patient’s life due to greed for money’, uproar against doctor and management; Know what is the whole matter

Serious questions have once again been raised on ‘Medanta Hospital’, which is counted among the renowned private hospitals of the country. The family members of the patient have seriously accused the hospital management and doctors of playing with the treatment in the greed of earning money and adopting unethical attitude. After the incident, family members and supporters created ruckus in the hospital premises for a long time. From a reporter’s point of view, this is not the first case when a big corporate hospital has been accused of paying huge bills in the name of ‘profit making’ and unnecessary treatment/ventilator support.

Family members’ allegation: “Kept in ICU unnecessarily and given a bill of lakhs”

The victim’s family claims that the patient was brought to the hospital after complaining of a mild complaint, but the doctors scared him and immediately put him in the ICU and on ventilator support. The main allegation of the family is that:

• Unnecessary Medical Procedures: According to family members, despite improvement in the patient’s condition, he was not discharged and many tests and medicines were prescribed which were not required.

• Bill of lakhs: When the family members asked for the patient to be shifted to another hospital or discharged, they were handed a huge bill worth lakhs of rupees and an attempt was made to stop the papers and the patient until the money was paid.

Cleanliness of hospital administration and interference of police

After the commotion and arrival of media, the local police team reached the spot and controlled the situation. The Medanta Hospital administration has completely rejected all these allegations and given its clarification:

• Hospital side: The management says that the medical condition of the patient was very critical and he was being treated as per international medical protocols. The hospital has termed the allegations of any kind of negligence or forced billing as baseless.

• police check: The police have registered the complaint of the family members and have assured a fair investigation into the matter. Police officials say that further legal action will be taken after taking the medical report of the patient and opinion from the panel of doctors.

Questions raised on arbitrariness in private hospitals

After this incident, once again there is huge anger among the general public regarding the alleged ‘looting’ and lack of transparency in the name of treatment in private corporate hospitals. Health experts and civil rights activists believe that:

• Ignoring Medical Ethics: Under the pressure of commercial targets, sometimes doctors and hospitals leave aside ‘medical ethics’.

• Need for strict rules: The government should implement strict guidelines regarding treatment rates, ICU charges and medical auditing in private hospitals, so that no hospital can play with the life of any patient for the sake of money.