Kolkata, Sept 5 (PTI) The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission intervened to reduce the bill of a dead COVID-19 woman and urged the city-based private hospital which treated her to allow her family members to pay the dues in instalments, an official said on Saturday. The Commission urged that the woman's family be allowed to pay Rs 5,000 over two years to pay the bill, he said.

Acting on a complaint lodged by a family member of the octogenarian woman of being overcharged and threatened by the authorities of the hospital where she was admitted in July for treatment, the Commission has asked it to reconsider the bill and reduce an amount of Rs 1.7 lakh.

Also Read | State Business Reform Action Plan 2019 Ranking: Andhra Pradesh Retains 1st Rank, UP Wrests 2nd Spot From Telangana; Check Full List.

We went through the hospital bill and found that it had charged for medicines, which the family had already paid for while procuring it from the hospital pharmacy. We also found that the family is from an economically weak background but had gone to the private hospital at the suggestion of others, Justice (Retired) Ashim Kumar Banerjee said.

The woman's family members had paid Rs 2.2 lakh at the time of admission and purchased medicines for her separately. But the hospital had reportedly charged them Rs 6.2 lakh.

Also Read | National Education Policy 2020: Gujarat Will Be First to Implement NEP, Says CM Vijay Rupani.

The Commission has also registered a suo motu complaint against six private hospitals in the city on the basis of a report published in the media that they were yet to put up on display boards rate charts and treatment costs as per the advisory issued by it.

The matter will be heard on September 25, an official of the Commission said.

(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)