Navi Mumbai: Civic bodies crack down on illegal, inflated Covid treatment

Navi Mumbai/Mumbai: Days after it initiated action against Vashi’s Palm Beach Hospital and Diagnostic Centre, the Navi Mumbai civic body cracked down on two other private hospitals on Saturday for non-compliance to its September 19 showcause notice. NMMC has ordered Vashi’s Global 5 Healthcare (Kunnure Hospital) and Airoli’s Criti Care ICU & Super Specialty Hospital to not admit any Covid patients till further directions.

NMMC has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh each on the hospitals. Both the hospitals were found treating Covid-19 patients without requisite permissions from NMMC.

“These two hospitals have been admitting and treating Covid patients without authorization. After imposing penalty and restricting them from admitting new patients, our next action will be cancellation of their registration,” said NMMC commissioner Abhijit Bangar.

Meanwhile, Ravi Vyas, BJP corporator of Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation (MBMC), has written to the civic chief to file a police case against private hospitals that inflate bills of Covid patients.

MBMC had set up a five-member panel to inspect bills of private hospitals treating Covid patients. Nine hospitals in the region were permitted to treat them. The panel found that most of these hospitals had charged exorbitant bills ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh.