Patients made to shell out up to `10 lakh for 15-day stay and treatment Hospitals make a killing out of swine flu

Treatment of swine flu in private hospitals is turning out to be a highly expensive proposition. Hospitals are charging `5 lakh to `10 lakh for the treatment, by keeping the patients on ventilator and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

Thirty-seven-year-old J Prakash from Ranga Reddy is undergoing treatment in KIMS hospital for the last 15 days. His bills totalled `10 lakh.

According to senior health officials in the district medical and health department, who have been regularly visiting the patient, the ventilator support being given to him costs `75,000 per day.

The patient came with 98 per cent load of the virus and was suffering from acute respiratory problems due to which the lungs were badly damaged.

A senior officer said, “We have been requesting the relatives to shift the patient to Gandhi Hospital where there is a separate ward. They are not willing. The patient is now going to be put on ECMO support.”

Similarly, Abu Bakar, a three-year-old boy from Nizamabad, is undergoing treatment in Rainbow Hospitals for the last 15 days for swine flu and has been billed `4 lakh.

His father Mohammed says, “I have been paying money hoping that the child will improve but I no longer have the capacity. They have asked me to shift him now to Gandhi Hospital for further treatment.”

Doctors in Gandhi Hospital said, “In the last one week, we got two patients, who came to us very late, and died within six hours. When their relatives were asked why they didn’t come earlier, they said they were undergoing treatment in private hospitals where they were billed between `3 and `5 lakh for a week.”

While the district medical and health officials are visiting the patients in private hospitals, they are not able to counsel the patients about the treatment in government hospitals.

A senior officer said, “Patients coming with very heavy viral load have complications and they are frightened about going to Gandhi Hospital as they fear the patient will die, which is not true.”

Gandhi Hospital has since January had five patients who were kept in the hospital for two weeks and recovered completely.

One patient died in Gandhi Hospital taking the total number of deaths in January to 5. A nurse in Osmania General Hospital has been identified with swine flu and is undergoing treatment at home, said doctors in Osmania General Hospital.