Several COVID-19 patients at Dhaka hospital were billed ‘extra’

Humayun Kabir, a grocer at Dhaka’s Fakirapool, was taken to Anwer Khan Modern Hospital at Dhanmondi on May 17 with fever amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Four days later, he tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, and transferred to the hospital’s coronavirus unit.

The government included the hospital on the list of those designated for COVID-19 healthcare and it launched the services in mid-May.

The government said it will pay the bill for coronavirus treatment at the private hospitals as well and struck deals with them.

The Anwer Khan Modern Hospital, however, ended its contract on May 31.

An unsuspecting Humayun was handed a bill totalling more than Tk 268,000 on Tuesday along with his discharge order.

He had paid another Tk 75,000 for the four-day treatment for fever before his coronavirus diagnosis.  

Humauyn spent Tuesday night at the hospital simply because he did not have the money.

“I run a small shop. It was difficult for me to pay the Tk 75,000 bill. I wasn’t given oxygen support. Not many drugs either. We were five patients in a room. Such a huge bill appeared unreasonable,” he told bdnews24.com.

He said he had arguments with the hospital authorities.

“They had a simple answer that they had nothing to do. The manager told me they could offer me a Tk 20,000-25,000 discount. But how would I be able to pay such a huge amount,” he wondered.

In the wee hours of Wednesday, an official called him and said they cut his bill “because they were under pressure”.

That was after bdnews24.com reported that another COVID-19 survivor, Saifur Rahman, had been barred from leaving the hospital after discharge for his inability to pay the bills.

Humayun finally left the hospital on Wednesday morning after paying Tk 20,746.

The Tk 268,000 bills made by the hospital included fees for bed, doctors, tests, medicines, and 10 percent service charge.

Saifur went home early Wednesday morning by paying Tk 150,000. The hospital later refunded him Tk 16,000.

Humayun and Saifur were not the only patients charged “extra” for coronavirus healthcare.

The hospital authorities say they had “mistakenly” took the “extra” money.

“It was a misunderstanding. It’s not a problem. We are refunding the money to all the patients [who were billed extra],” said Md Ehteshamul Haque, the hospital’s director.

There were five to seven patients who had to suffer for the “mistake”, according to Ehteshamul.