The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission on Tuesday heard complaints from the husband of a deceased woman against two hospitals, one of which had allegedly written hernia when it had done a curative surgery for a laparoscopic procedure done in another hospital.
Retired judge Ashim Banerjee, the commission’s chairperson, said Woodlands Hospital gave a response to the panel after the complaint was filed, saying they had done a hernia surgery when that never happened. Banerjee said it was a “cause of concern” that a hospital of Woodlands’ scale did this.
“The woman was taken there for curative surgery. The doctor advised the patient’s family that they would not get a bill for curative surgery, so he showed it as hernia. In their response to us, Woodlands said there was hernia, though that never happened,” he said.
The 33-year-old woman had undergone the surgery at Nightingale Hospital. The hospital allegedly discharged her within 24 hours. Banerjee said the woman should have been kept under observation for two or three days. The hospital told the commission that the woman asked to be discharged since she had a three-year-old child at home.
Later, post-surgical complications developed and she was admitted to Woodlands.
When her situation deteriorated, she was shifted to SSKM Hospital, where she passed away. “She was billed Rs 9 lakh at Woodlands. The insurance company asked for some clarifications, which the hospital could not give. The family had to finally pay in cash,” Banerjee.
The panel reserved its judgement and asked the aggrieved party to approach the West Bengal Medical Commission if it had any complaint of medical negligence, which is not within the ambit of the commission.
“We have asked Woodlands to prepare a fresh and proper bill. We will hear the complaint regarding the billing. We also found that Nightingale did not offer discounts on medicines. The hospital has promised to do so,” he said.
“The patient was admitted on June 3. She came with post-surgical complications and we tried to address them. She was later taken to another hospital,” said a Woodlands official.
The hospital did not want to comment on the allegation that they wrote hernia in the documents.
The Telegraph called the landline number of Nightingale Hospital on Tuesday evening. A man who took the call noted this correspondent’s number and promised that someone from the hospital would call back. No one called back till late on Tuesday.