A man from Jharkhand allegedly committed suicide after he was told that his daughter, who had been admitted to a nursing home in Burdwan, would not be released unless he settled the bill. Four persons, including three owners and the manager of the nursing home, were detained in this connection, police said on Saturday. The incident comes a day after a man died when a top private hospital in Kolkata allegedly refused his family permission to shift him to a government hospital unless all dues were settled. Watch What Else Is Making News In the latest incident, Tapan Lete (46), a farmer and a resident of Dumka district, hanged himself from a tree at his native village in Jharkhand on Tuesday night after being unable to arrange the treatment cost of Rs 25,000. The victim’s family alleged that the privately-run PG Nursing Home in Burdwan had told Tapan that unless he coughed up the entire amount, his daughter, Chumki, would not be released and would be sent to a home for destitute. The family claimed that the bill was inflated. According to police, Chumki gave birth to a baby boy at Rampurhat Hospital in Birbhum on February 7. While the newborn was healthy, the mother’s condition deteriorated following which the hospital referred her to the government-run Burdwan Medical College. “The doctors at the Birbhum hospital did not bother checking what was actually wrong with my daughter. Instead they immediately referred her to Burdwan,” said Chumki’s mother, Anima. Doctors at Burdwan said that Chumki was suffering from pregnancy-related issues. On February 19, Tapan was told by a driver of a government ambulance service of the Birbhum hospital to admit his daughter to a nursing home for better treatment. “It appears that Tapan was fleeced in some way as he was convinced that his daughter will get better treatment at the nursing home,” said a police officer. Some days later, the nursing home handed Tapan a bill of Rs 25,000, police said. He then rushed back to his village to arrange for the money. But, unable to do so, he hanged himself from a tree, police said. “He had managed to arrange only Rs 13,000. Tapan and his neighbours had even tried to convince the hospital that they would donate blood if they give a discount. But they refused,” said a senior police officer. Chumki was released from the nursing home on Friday. A source said that the nursing home, in the past, had been in the middle of a similar controversy. “Last year, the nursing home had a similar allegation of over-charging against them. The matter is still under investigation,” the source said. Police said the owner of the ambulance service, which had ferried Chumki and Tapan from Birbhum to Burdwan said that it was not their ambulance. “We suspect that the ambulance driver was a part of a larger group of touts who worked to cheat poor and vulnerable people from Jharkhand and adjoining Bengal and extorted money from them,” police said. DM Saumitra Mohan told The Sunday Express that they were investigating the matter and the guilty would be punished. Rampurhat health officer Brajeshbar Majumdar said they were investigating the issue. In a report sent by Burdwan health department to the CMO on the issue, it said that the patient had been overcharged. Pointing to one such anomaly in the bill, a source said that the patient had been charged Rs 3,500 for ICU and then charged additionally for provision of oxygen. “You can’t have an ICU without the oxygen facility,” the source said. Another official said that the incident underscored the need to have a regulatory committee to check over-charging by private hospitals. CM Mamata Banerjee had on Wednesday warned private hospitals against over-charging patients and negligence in treatment and announced setting up of a regulatory commission to monitor their functioning.
