Aurangabad, March 23:
The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) administrator Astik Kumar Pandey today warned the city's private doctors of severe action against them if they are found collecting exorbitant charges from Covid-19 patients undergoing treatment under home isolation.
He said, " There are around 3,000 infected patients from the city who are undergoing treatment are under home isolation. It is learnt that private doctors are collecting Rs 10,000 fees from each patient against the treatment of 10 days.
Hereafter, the private doctors treating the Covid-19 patients through video-conferencing should charge Rs 2,000 (Rs 200 per day), and if he is paying a visit for a health check-up, then charges will Rs 500 per day. If any doctor is reported to be collecting more than it, the administration will take action against the specific doctor."
It may be noted that independent doctors had set up their tables in some of the big hospitals in the city to treat the infected patients under home isolation. The duration of treatment is 10 days, but they give the medicines and tablets to the patient at one time only. Later on, they tell the patient to make a phone call if he faces any health problem. The private doctors issue a consent letter if the patient wants to avail treatment under home isolation. The letter states that the doctor will be treating him for 10 days. Ironically, against issuing the letter, they are collecting Rs 10,000 from each patient for the past one year, it is learnt.
Presently, the majority of the Covid suspects are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. Hence the AMC encourages them to take treatment under home isolation so that the beds in Covid Care Centres (CCCs) could be utilised for the treatment of serious patients. Presently around 2,700 patients are undergoing treatment at their homes and are getting recovered through treatment in 10 days. There are no examples of patients getting serious and is shifted to private hospitals from home. However, the AMC administration came to know about the exorbitant charges collected by private doctors. Hence to curb the practice, the administrator fixed the charges.
Rise in patients during the last 5 days
There were 1,400 patients under home isolation till March 17, the figure touched 2,208 on March 19, 2,617 on March 20 and 2,725 on March 22. The gradual rise in patients under home isolation also worries the administration.