DHO dismisses hospital’s demand for Covid-19 payment

Claims private hospital only provided rooms for coronavirus patients

HYDERABAD:

A charity hospital - one of two private healthcare facilities selected for admitting Covid-19 patients in Hyderabad - demanded a payment of Rs21.5 million on account of service charges from the district administration last month. However, Hyderabad district health officer (DHO) Lala Jaffar Khan, who probed the veracity of the claim, has concluded that the bill submitted by the hospital is 'fabricated'.

"It is really astonishing that [Wali Bhai] Rajputana [Hospital's] management filed a fabricated claim," Khan wrote to Hyderabad deputy commissioner (DC) Fuad Ghaffar Soomro on Wednesday.

The hospital had requested Soomro on June 18 to release three payments of Rs9.28 million, Rs8.46 million and Rs3.82 million for its services.

"We set up a Covid-19 ward and provided all required medical facilities and treatment to the patients under the supervision of our qualified doctors and medical staff," said a statement by the hospital.

In a subsequent letter dated June 24, the hospital's management claimed, "After the admission of coronavirus patients, the admission of general patients drastically decreased as they were wary of Covid-19 patients and our business activities suffered badly."

A health official, who spoke to The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity, said the bill submitted by the hospital was "greatly exaggerated."

"Only around 61 suspected patients belonging to a tableeghi group were admitted to the hospital. Any admitted person who tested positive was shifted to Liaquat University Hospital or Sindh Government Hospital, Kohsar," he said.

The DHO, meanwhile, took a statement from the government focal person deputed at the hospital, who maintained that all essential items, including medicines and personal protective equipment, as well as staff services were provided by the DHO's office.

"We just used their rooms," Khan later told The Express Tribune, expressing surprise that the hospital demanded payment for services that were actually provided by the DHO's office. Even the virus testing services were provided by the government, he added.

Meanwhile, the DC's office is yet to respond to Wali Bhai Rajputana Hospital's letter.

Former Hyderabad DC Ayesha Abro had declared the hospital an isolation centre under the Sindh Epidemic Diseases Act, 2014, on March 22, to be supervised by the DHO’s office.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2020.