Officials of the Vigilance and Enforcement (V&E) Department conducted raids on several COVID hospitals in the State on Wednesday and booked cases against nine hospital managements for allegedly misusing Remdesivir vials and for charging excess fee from patients.
The officials, who constituted flying squads in all districts, verified the records and interacted with the attendants. They reportedly unearthed several irregularities at some hospitals and arrested three persons, including the MDs of two hospitals, said V&E Director General K.V. Rajendranath Reddy.
The squads conducted raids on Queens NRI Hospital in Vizianagaram, Rich Hospitals in Nellore, Prakasam Hospital in Ongole, Sri Gayatri Hospital in Kurnool, Ramadevi Multi-Speciality Hospital in Tirupati, Puvvada Hospital at Narsaraopet in Guntur district, KCH Hospital in Kadapa, Komma Hospital and S.V. Multi Speciality Hospital in Anantapur.
Vigilance officials observed that the hospital managements were collecting ₹25,000 to ₹30,000 from patients each day, and were also collecting advance fee without issuing bills. In some hospitals, the managements were charging ₹3,000 per day for supplying oxygen from the patients admitted to the ICU, Mr. Reddy said.
‘Case sheets tweaked’
Managements of some hospitals reportedly tampered with the case sheets of patients and showed that Remdesivir vials were being given to them, although they were in good condition. This was done for black-marketing of the vials, police said.
Cases have been registered against the managements under Section 188, 420 and Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act, the DG said.
