The Telangana High Court directed the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Government to ensure private hospitals taking extra money, refunds the excess amount.
Recently, the people of Telangana filed several petitions and reports about certain hospitals treating the Wuhan virus (Novel Coronavirus) and overcharging from the patients. In regard to this, the Telangana Government issued orders and warned such private hospitals not to take more than the fixed prices of the State Government while treating COVID-19 patients.
Meanwhile, on the 1st of June, the Telangana High Court reviewed the matter and directed the K. Chandrashekar Rao Government to ensure everyone receives the refund. The Court also expressed concern over the State Government’s failure to issue a new GO for capping the fees for COVID-19 tests and treatment .
The Telangana HC bench comprising of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B. Vijayasen Reddy said, canceling the license of such hospitals would not return the money of those, who already paid the fees. CJ Hima Kohli said, “People are having to mortgage gold to pay bills.” Speaking about the Cancellation of work permit, Hima Kohli said, “If at such a time you are cancelling their licenses, where are the patients supposed to go? Is it wise to cancel licenses instead of ramping up the strength of hospitals?”
Hence, the TRS Government has been asked to make sure everyone who paid the money in the past, gets a refund.
The Court also asked the TRS Government to submit a report briefing about the strategies to tackle the third wave of the Wuhan virus. Currently, Telangana and the nation are witnessing a second wave of the deadly Wuhah virus pandemic.
Meanwhile, in the past month, the Telangana Government cancelled the permits of six private hospitals. With this, a total of 22 private hospitals lost their work permit for overcharging and violating the norms of the COVID-19 guidelines. In addition, nearly 113 hospitals were given a show cause notice with a warning.
Meanwhile, currently Telangana has 33,254 active cases of the Wuhan virus, including 2,493 new cases in the past 24 hours.
Since the Telangana Government imposed a strict lockdown, the State is witnessing below 3,000 new cases. It is to be noted, the lockdown was imposed on the 12th of May and would continue till the 10th of June.
