The clinical establishment regulatory commission on Wednesday issued an interim order asking two private hospitals to deposit Rs 1 lakh and Rs 4 lakh after they were prima facie found negligent in the way a Covid-19 patient was treated.

Woodlands Hospital, which allegedly refused to keep a 79-year-old patient after he tested positive for Covid-19, has been asked to deposit Rs 1 lakh, retired judge Ashim Kumar Banerjee, the chairperson of West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission, said on Wednesday.

The patient, Ashok Ghosh, had been admitted to the Alipore hospital a few days before with complaints of gastroenteritis.

Desun Hospital, which allegedly kept the patient untreated in its ambulance for an hour till the family made an initial deposit of Rs 2 lakh, has been asked to submit Rs 4 lakh.

Ghosh, a resident of Hindustan Park, was admitted to Desun on June 11. He passed away on June 26.

The case once again throws light on the practice adopted by several private hospitals during the pandemic of asking for steep deposit amounts from patients before admitting them. It also highlights the practice followed by some other hospitals of refusing to treat anyone who has tested positive for Covid on the ground that those are non-Covid hospitals.

“The man was admitted to Woodlands Hospital on June 4 with complaints of gastroenteritis. He underwent a Covid-19 test during admission and the result was negative. A few days later, he underwent another test and this time the result was positive,” Banerjee said.

“The complainant, who is the deceased person’s son, alleged that Woodlands asked them to shift the patient within three hours and also asked them to clear the bill of Rs 2.09 lakh,” Banerjee said.

The chairperson added that an official of Woodlands said during Wednesday’s hearing that they did not set a deadline for shifting the patient.

“The family had no complaint against our hospital,” an Woodlands official told The Telegraph. Asked about the commission’s order to the hospital to submit Rs 1 lakh, he said they were yet to get any written order.

The commission chairperson said Woodlands officials had given the family the names of three hospitals where they could shift Ghosh. One option was Desun Hospital.

An ambulance from Desun came to Woodlands to transfer the patient. “The ambulance charged Rs 9,500 for the 11-km journey from one hospital to another,” Banerjee said.

Another round of ordeal began for the family when the ambulance arrived at Desun. “Officials from the hospital apparently demanded Rs 2 lakh from the family as a deposit before admission. When Ghosh’s family asked for time, they said the patient would not receive any treatment till the money was deposited,” Banerjee said.

Ghosh’s family got in touch with someone abroad. That person transferred the money to the hospital within an hour. “For the one hour that passed before Rs 2 lakh was transferred, the patient lay inside the ambulance without any doctor attending to him,” Banerjee said.

The patient was wheeled into the hospital only after the money arrived.

“We will not comment till we get a copy of the order,” Tapas Mukherjee, the deputy managing director of Desun Hospital, told The Telegraph.

The family cleared Desun’s bill of Rs 8.13 lakh, Banerjee said.

“This is an interim order. We have prima facie found negligence on the part of both hospitals,” . said Banerjee.

While hearing a similar complaint against Desun in August, the commission had asked the hospital to deposit Rs 10 lakh.

The son of a woman had lodged a complaint that his mother, a Covid-19 patient, died because the hospital refused to treat her as they were unable to pay an initial deposit of Rs 3 lakh. The woman had allegedly died while waiting in an ambulance outside Desun Hospital for over an hour as the family tried to arrange the money.

“We have tagged the two complaints against Desun and will hear them together,” said Banerjee.