A private hospital in Shajapur district of Madhya Pradesh was on Monday sealed and the district administration lodged an FIR against the hospital owner in connection with an incident in which an elderly patient was tied to hospital bed over non-payment of treatment bills.
A controversy had erupted when a picture of the old man lying on the hospital bed with hands and legs tied to the bed went viral in social media on Saturday.
After Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took cognizance of the media reports, Shajapur administration swung into action and newly appointed collector Dinesh Jain ordered a probe into the allegations.
On Monday, the committee led by ADM submitted the report to collector finding anomalies on the part of the private hospital. Afterwards the private hospital was sealed and an FIR was lodged with local Kotwali police station against the hospital administration.
On Sunday, as the clamour grew over the ‘inhuman’ incident, former Chief Minister Kamal Nath had tweeted the incident with a video. “Amid corona pandemic, some private hospitals are busy looting the patients and there is nobody to listen,” said Nath in the tweet seeking stringent action against the erring hospital.
CM Chouhan too had tweeted that no guilty will be spared in connection to the incident.
Daughter of the old man had alleged that her family had deposited money twice for treatment and when the hospital demanded more money, they pleaded before them to discharge the man as they had run out of cash. But the hospital reportedly sought a bill of around Rs 11,000 and tied the patient when the family could not pay.
Meanwhile, Dr Varun Bajaj, director of the said hospital told the media that the patient was discharged without taking money on Friday.
"The patient had intestinal problems and in order to administer the medicine, his legs were tied to the bed while his hands were held by his family during the process," he added.