Charitable hospital allegedly ‘making profit’

Hyderabad's Rajputana Hospital sends bill of Covid wards to DC

HYDERABAD:

One of the largest private hospitals in Hyderabad for which the provincial government had leased land on the condition that it would be operated on charitable basis has allegedly been turned into a for profit venture.

The Hyderabad Deputy Commissioner Fuad Ghaffar Soomro has taken up this matter with the Sindh Land Utilization Department Secretary, requesting the latter to cancel the lease of 42.12 acres of land on which Wali Bhai Rajputana hospital is built.

The hospital, which was established in 1972 and currently consists of 250 beds with 12 operation theatres, is located near Hyderabad bypass. Thousands of patients visit its outdoor patient department daily. It is under the management of All Pakistan Rajputana Federation.

The DC asserted in his letter that the hospital, in violation of the terms and conditions of the land allotment, is being operated on the commercial basis. He referred to the bill of Rs44.692 million which was served by the hospital to the DC's office for hiring some of its rooms during the peak of Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

"We arranged a complete ward of our hospital for Covid-19 pandemic and provided all the required facilities and treatment to the coronavirus patients under the supervision of our qualified doctors and medical staff," reads the February 20 letter served to the DC by the hospital. Five separate bills totalling Rs44.692 million were mentioned in the letter.

According to one of the bills, 16 VIP rooms were rented at the rate of Rs6,850 per day to the district administration for COVID-19 patients for a total of 123 days from October 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021. The charges for this bill were calculated at Rs13.48 million.

Another bill of Rs9.282 million was served to the government for hiring 26 VIP and 52 ordinary rooms from March 28, 2020, to April 30, 2020. The hospital's rooms, again 26 VIP and 52 ordinary, were hired for another 31 days starting May 1, 2020, for which the government has been asked to pay Rs8.463 million.

The same number of rooms remained in use for the Covid-19 patients for 14 days in June, 2020, for which the hospital wants a payment of Rs3.822 million. From July 5, 2020, to September 30, 2020, 16 VIP rooms were hired at the rate of Rs6,850 per day with the bill totalling Rs9.644 million.

Hyderabad District Health Officer Lala Jaffar Khan discredited the hospital's first three bills last year. "It is really astonishing that Rajputana's management [has] filed a fabricated claim," he had written in a letter to the DC in July, 2020. Talking to the Express Tribune on Thursday, the DHO said he will check the last two bills only after which he will be able to comment.

"An ample testimony of their sole commercial interests is that even during Covid-19 pandemic and emergency situation, the hospital billed this office to the tune of more than Rs4 crores [Rs40 million] though only two rooms [of the hospital] were in use for sample collection after the 1st wave of Covid-19," reads the DC's letter written to the Sindh Secretary LU.

The DC also requested the provincial government to constitute an inquiry committee to probe the hospital's commercial concerns and also to recover the amount earned as profit by the management. According to a Feb 24, 1968, letter of the then commissioner Hyderabad, the federation was given the land in question for establishment of a charitable hospital, a hostel, a college and other allied institutions.

The Rajputana Federation Vice President Syed Yawar Ali Shah said while talking to The Express Tribune that they are unaware of the DC's letter to the land utilisation secretary. He said if they received any official correspondence in this regard they will refer the matter to their legal team.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2021.