An official inquiry by the Haryana government has found the Gurgaon Fortis hospital guilty of overcharging and several other violations of law, media outlets reported.
Quoting the official copy of the report, Mirror Now said that the inquiry committee found the hospital guilty of negligence, lapses, unethical and unlawful acts on the part of the team of doctors that attended to seven-year-old Adya Singh of Dwarka in Delhi.
The report has found the hospital guilty of prescribing higher cost medicines, where lower cost options were available in the pharmacy and of overcharging of around Rs 12,800 against a price of just Rs 400, the channel said.
The committee also observed that there was huge profit margin in the cost of medicine and consumables, as in this case the profit margin was around 1,737%, it added.
It also found “unregulated and high cost of procedure” imposed on the patient, the channel said.
Other violations include a failure to report the case to the Civil Surgeon, as was required under the Epidemic Disease Act, and failure to adhere to the LAMA (leave against medical advice) policy, the channel said.
“The patient was on ventilator for 14 days,” said Haryana health minister Anil Vij. “When the parents demanded that they wanted to take her to another hospital, they were not provided the advanced life-support-system ambulance. They were provided an ordinary ambulance.”
He said the Haryana government has initiated action against the hospital.
He also that the hospital is required to provide healthcare at cheaper rates to 20% of its customers drawn from the economically weaker sections according to an agreement it has with the government.
Adya Singh, daughter of Dwarka-based IT professional Jayant Singh, was admitted to Fortis on August 31 with ‘severe dengue’. Her condition worsened to ‘dengue shock syndrome’ and she was moved to the ventilator.
The parents approached media after their child died and they were given a bill of around Rs 16 lakh.