The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission on Friday asked ILS Dum Dum to refund Rs 40,000 of the Rs 58,201 it had charged a Covid patient for PPE and other consumables for a 10-day stay at the hospital, the commission’s chairperson said on Friday.

The commission also asked R Flemming Hospital to pay Rs 1 lakh to a Covid victim’s family in compensation and cough up another Rs 10,000 as penalty after it was found to be prima facie true that a nurse attending the patient in ICU was sleeping when the oxygen tube had come off her nose.

Medica Superspecialty Hospital and Charnock Hospital have been asked to compensate two patients’ families Rs 50,000 each.

“We have asked ILS Dum Dum to refund Rs 40,000 to Ajay Khaitan, who was admitted to the hospital in May. The hospital had charged Khaitan Rs 58,201 for PPE and other consumables for a 10-day stay. The bill showed that the hospital charged for 36 PPE sets. They also charged for masks, head cover and shoe cover separately,” said retired judge Ashim Banerjee, the chairperson of the commission.

The Telegraph has reported a number of times that several hospitals had charged exorbitant rates for PPE sets in the initial days of the pandemic.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had on June 26 announced that hospitals could not charge more than Rs 1,000 for PPE per patient per day. The commission issued an advisory on August 1 stating that items like headgear and gloves should be considered part of the PPE and should not be charged separately.

Banerjee said ILS argued that the rates were charged before the government introduced the ceiling.

Debashis Dhar, the group vice-president of ILS Hospitals, said they would follow the commission’s order but added “it was not justified”.

“We had charged these rates at a time when we had to buy PPE at much higher prices than now and there was no capping. We did not overcharge any of our patients for PPE. People must understand that PPE sets are used for the safety of patients and healthcare workers,” said Dhar.

R Flemming Hospital in Topsia was asked to compensate the family of a woman who passed away in December. “The woman’s husband complained that a nurse attending the woman was sleeping when the oxygen tube came off her nose. When the family pointed this out, the nurse fixed it and asked them to leave,” said Banerjee.

“They also complained that a hospital employee, who was not a doctor, had identified himself as one and demanded money from the patient’s family….The hospital’s conduct was negligent. We asked them to compensate the family Rs 1 lakh and pay the Rs 10,000 as penalty.”

Sahid Khan, the manager of R Flemming Hospital, denied the allegations. “Our patient coordinator had spoken to the family about the bill. What can we say if after interacting with him for so many days the complainant says they thought he was a doctor. Will a doctor ever talk about bill amounts? We will go through the order and decide our course of action,” said Khan.

During Friday’s hearing, Medica Superspecialty Hospital was asked to compensate the family of a 75-year-old man who alleged that the doctor who performed a heart surgery on him was not present during a subsequent check-up in February.

They also alleged that a diabetologist should have checked the man, but did not, said Banerjee.

The elderly man later passed away.

“We felt it was the hospital’s responsibility to arrange a diabetologist to examine the patient. The hospital should have also appointed the doctor who performed the surgery for the follow-up check. We ordered the hospital to compensate the family Rs 50,000,” said Banerjee.

An official of the hospital said they would not comment before going through the order in detail.

Charnock Hospital in Teghoria was asked to pay Rs 50,000 for giving an incomplete death certificate to a 67-year-old woman’s family in November 2019. “The certificate did not have the woman’s age and time of death. The doctor had to go to the cremation ghat to correct the certificate,” said Banerjee.

The hospital does not have a blood bank and it did not help the patient for blood transfusion, said Banerjee.

The Telegraph could not reach any official of the hospital.