The state clinical establishment commission has asked Desun Hospital to deposit Rs 10 lakh while dealing with a complaint that a Covid-19 patient died because the hospital refused to treat her as her family was unable to pay an initial deposit of Rs 3 lakh.

The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission, which passed the order on Wednesday, also directed Desun to not take any advance payment from a patient before admission.

“Ideally, Desun’s licence should have been cancelled for this. But many patients are getting treated there and we do not want to take such a step. We have asked the hospital to deposit Rs 5 lakh by Tuesday. They have to deposit another Rs 5 lakh within another two weeks,” said retired judge Ashim Kumar Banerjee, the chairman of the commission.

“We have also asked Desun to not take any advance payment as deposit while admitting Covid-19 patients. This order is applicable only on Desun Hospital and not other private hospitals treating Covid-19 patients.”

But there will be no bar on accepting payment for the bill raised for treatment at the hospital, he clarified.

The commission had earlier issued an advisory that private hospitals could take up to Rs 50,000 or 20 per cent of the estimated treatment cost, whichever is lower, as advance payment from Covid-19 patients.

A 60-year-old woman who had tested positive for Covid died on August 10 allegedly while waiting in an ambulance outside Desun Hospital for over an hour. The woman’s son had alleged that the hospital refused to admit her despite repeated pleas because the family could not pay Rs 3 lakh immediately as initial deposit.

The son told Metro on Wednesday that his mother lay in the ambulance outside the hospital from 9pm to 10.30pm. “I will be happy if the commission is able to force all hospitals to start treatment without waiting for any initial deposit. I do not want anyone else to suffer what my mother had to suffer,” he said.

Tapas Banerjee, a senior official of Desun Hospital, told this newspaper on Wednesday that they were yet to get a copy of the order. “No one is above law. We will abide by the law,” he said.

The commission asked Desun, the woman’s family and the hospital from where she was transferred to file affidavits. “The hospital where the woman was initially admitted before she tested positive for Covid-19 had some responsibilities, too. They should have stabilised the woman’s condition before asking the family to shift her,” the commission chairman said.

Anandaloke licence off Banerjee said the commission had decided to cancel the licence of all units of Anandaloke Hospital as it had declined to pay Rs 2 lakh to a complainant. The commission had awarded a compensation of Rs 3 lakh to the complainant about a year ago.

But the hospital paid only Rs 1 lakh. “Anandaloke officials recently informed the commission that it would not be able to pay the remaining amount and so we have decided to cancel the license of the hospital. We have communicated our decision to the state health department,” Banerjee said on Wednesday.

The Telegraph could not reach any official of the hospital for a comment.