India News | 4 More Hospitals in Andhra Booked for Fleecing Patients

Amaravati, May 7 (PTI): Criminal cases were on Friday filed against the managements of four more hospitals across Andhra Pradesh for allegedly fleecing hapless patients and misappropiation of Remdesivir injections.

This follows continued raids on errant hospitals across the State by the Vigilance and Enforcement Department.

The Vigilance and Enforcement Director General K V Rajendranath Reddy said in a press release on Friday that 15 hospitals were inspected across the State and irregularities found in four of them.

The hospitals were admitting patients on the condition that bills would not be issued, he said.

A hospital in Guntur city was found charging patients exorbitantly, over and above the rates fixed by the government, and bills were also not issued for payments made, the DG said.

A criminal case under Sections 188, 420, 384 of Indian Penal Code and Section 51 (a) of Disaster Management Act was registered against the hospital management.

A similar case was registered against a private hospital management in Arilova, Visakhapatnam.

A hospital in Jangareddygudem in West Godavari and another in Anantapuramu were found to be misappropriating Remdesivir injections while also charging the patients excessively.

"These hospitals were also refusing treatment under the Aarogya Sri health insurance scheme. Accordingly, we booked them under Sections 188, 420, 384 IPC and Sections 51 (b) and 53 of Disaster Management Act, Rajendranath said.

On Thursday, five private hospital managements in different districts were booked for various irregularities in treatment of COVID-19 patients.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)