Educationist Sagar Jondhale has moved the High Court of Bombay challenging the validity of a notification issued by the Maharashtra Govt on May 21, on the ground that it has fixed exorbitant rates for the treatment of Covid-19 patients at private hospitals.
Claiming that the notification affects the right to life of people – especially of the ones belonging to the lower strata of the society – Jondhale has urged High Court to strike down the notification, & direct the state to provide free of cost treatment to all Covid-19 patients. The 42-year-old Dombivli resident has also sought High Court’s direction in allowing private hospitals to charge non-Covid patients at the rates fixed under Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Health Insurance Scheme.
His PIL, filed through Lawyer Anand Jondhale, said that the number of Covid-19 patients is rising rapidly across Maharashtra, even as scores of others have been kept in institutional & home quarantine. The plea added that in most cases, an infected patient’s entire family is also required to undergo the testing & take treatment if any of them is found positive.
Jondhale, in his plea said that the rates prescribed by the state’s notification are beyond the paying capacity of the general public & even if the minimum rates, as fixed under the notification are charged by private hospitals, the bill will range between Rs 75,000 & Rs 1,00,000 for a patient admitted in the general ward of a hospital. The notification under challenge allows private hospitals to charge a maximum of Rs 4,000 per day for patients admitted to regular wards, Rs 7,500 in intensive care units (ICU) without ventilator support & Rs 9,000 in ICU with ventilator. However, the rates, don't include charges for personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, interventional procedures, Covid testing, high-end drugs & investigations such as CT & MRI scans.
The notification allows private hospitals to charge separately for pharmacy & pathology services, as per the prevailing rates of the hospital, stated the PIL. It is not only the bounden duty of the state to protect the life of every citizen by taking appropriate steps to curb the Covid-19 outbreak, but also to provide free of cost treatment to persons infected by the deadly virus, he said.
The educationist, therefore, asserted that the government should provide free treatment, including pathological testing & medicines, to corona positive patients, especially to those who are not covered by any health insurance cover.
On June 5, the PIL will come up for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta & Justice Amjad Sayed.
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