Normally a hospital gives what is loosely referred to as ‘shock treatment’ in the form of electroconvulsive therapy. Under this procedure, small bursts of electric currents are passed through the brain, intentionally triggering a brief seizure.
A corporate hospital in Banjara Hills seems to have innovatively adopted a less-expensive (to the hospital) method of giving shock treatment to its patients. Recently, the hospital billed a patient Rs 700 after providing him a plate of idlis! The bill also included ‘other charges’, which the recipient of the bill thinks ought to be worded as ‘bother charges’, going by the agonising secrecy surrounding the term.
Of course, a snapshot of the hospital’s tiffin bill has gone viral on the internet.
Forum Against Corruption founder Vijay Gopal tweeted with a copy of the bill, tagging the hospital’s official Twitter account, office of the Health Minister, Public Health Director and two others. He wanted the hospital to explain what the term ‘other charges’ means.
So 1 plate idly in Rainbow Hospital BHills is 700/- it seems. @RCH_India , does this idly come from Heavens? Also, what amounts to this OTHER CHARGES? @drgsrao n @ts_health , what action are we taking here for Other Charges? I mean what is this? @CoreenaSuares2 @anusha_puppala pic.twitter.com/Tx253OiTKh
— VijayGopal (@VijayGopal_) February 1, 2021
Some corporate hospitals have appointed dieticians as part of a scheme to extort money from patients. The dieticians visit patients and simply enquire whether they had breakfast, lunch and dinner. For this, hospitals have the gall collect Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 towards diet charges.
A netizen expressed his surprise over insurance companies not questioning the hospitals for issuing bills with such details. #KhabarLive #hydnews
