Patients and their relatives have raised allegations that the authorities of United Hospital (UH) keep the patients to the Coronary Care and the Intensive Care Units for longer period than needed without proper diagnosis of the disease to earn more money.
They (hospital authorities) do not tell the relatives about the possible cost of treatment before the admission of the patients.
Even they also keep the patients in the ICU, CCU and cabin bed to increase the hospital bill, the relatives made the allegation to this correspondent on Monday. They further alleged that the hospital authorities do not hand over the bodies to the relatives instantly after deaths just to count over duration bill.
Shahidul Islam, who took treatment in the hospital recently, alleged that the hospital authorities gave him an inflated bill at the time of his release.
“I had to pay Tk 6 lakh as bill which was three times higher than the estimate the hospital authorities gave at the time of his admission in the cardiac unit,” he added.
But the authorities of the hospital refuted the allegation and said that a vested quarter is trying to defame the good-will of the hospital in a planned way. They also briefed the press about the incident on Saturday and Sunday.
While talking to The New Nation on Monday, Dr Dabir Uddin, a Director (Clinical and Operation Department) of the hospital rejected all the allegations and said the hospital authorities always try to offer better treatment to the patients and keep their relatives informed about the exact amount of bill. “We also prepare the bills ensuring transparency and without dillydally,” he added.
He also said that the allegation of keeping the patients in the CCU, ICU for longer period with a view to earning extra money is just a blatant lie.
Hospital’s Public Relation Officer (PRO) Mostafizur Rahman said, “We always disclose the estimated cost of any operation, fee of ICU and CCU to the patients or their relatives before admission to the hospital. Even, we propose a package system for treatment facility,” he added.
Rahman said that the UH authorities have fixed a CCU package at Tk 4 lakh. The cost might, however, fluctuate depending on the condition of patients.
He further said that per day CCU or ICU charge (without life support) for a patient is at least Tk 10,000.
When asked, he said, “We do not take all the money before admitting a patient.”
He, however, declined to disclose the CCU charge in case of patents life support.
“I cannot give you the exact figure charged for the patents with life support. You better talk to our director of management,” he said.
But, the director of management could not be reached on his cell phone despite several attempts.
On Saturday, allegation was raised against the UH authorities for not handing over the body of a patient after his relatives failed to pay the bill.
Md. Aslam, 54, a resident of Dilu Road in the city’s Moghbazar area and a stock exchange businessman died of lungs infection on Friday afternoon while he was in life support at CCU.
The UH authorities, however, handed over the body Sunday evening on condition that the patient’s family members would pay the bill amounting to Tk 15 lakh in five installments within months.
