We didn’t know he was a blast victim: Surya Hospital

The authorities of Surya Hospital on Tuesday sought to explain the circumstances in which they violated the state government directives and demanded payment for medical treatment from a victim of the February 13 German Bakery bomb blast. 

Although the victim, Saqr Al-Bethany (28), an Yemeni, was brought to the hospital with 45% burns two hours after the blast, the hospital authorities claimed on Tuesday that they did not know he was a victim of the blast.

“We charged the victim because we did not know that he was a German Bakery blast victim,” said Sadanand Bapat, director of Sahyadri Hospitals Ltd, which has acquired 51% stakes in Surya Hospital. 

Bapat made this claim in the presence of Dr Charudatta Apte, chairman of Sahyadri Group of Hospitals, who kept silent and appeared to support the claim. He said the Surya Hospital doctors “were not aware about the terrorist attack when the patient came in at 8.30 pm. Due to this, the victim was charged. Besides, the victim himself insisted on staying in a deluxe room, for which he was charged.”

DNA, in an exclusive report (Surya Hospital’s billing to be investigated, December 14) highlighted the plight of the Yemeni patient who has been seeking reimbursement of the payments made to Surya Hospital. The patient was admitted to the hospital from February 13 to March 2.

Soon after the terrorist attack, which killed 17 people and injured more than 60, the state government issued directives specifying that the cost of medical treatment of victims would be borne by it. The district collectorate issued strict instructions that hospitals should not trouble any victim for payment.

It has now come to light that Surya Hospital violated this directive and claimed more than Rs32,000 from the Yemeni national. The hospital has not reimbursed the amount to the victim.

Showing receipts of payment made to Surya Hospital, Al-Bethany told DNA that he had paid “more than Rs32,000” to the hospital and had been urging it to reimburse the amount. He said the hospital administrator, Mahesh Kulkarni, had been making empty promises or ignoring his phone calls.

Bapat said that the government does not refund the cost of deluxe rooms and pays for the general ward. “Now, if the government agrees to pay us the amount for deluxe rooms we will immediately refund his money,” he said, adding that the hospital has submitted a compensation claim of Rs1.91 lakh to the district collectorate for treating Al-Bethany.

Dr Apte said that the victim “should have come to us and given us a written complaint, which he has not done yet.” When it was pointed out that the victim had been repeatedly contacting Kulkarni for a refund, he said the hospital administrator was right in stating that the refund would be given only after the hospital’s claims were cleared by the government.

In an interview to DNA, tehsildar Shubhada Shinde, who has been handling compensation for German Bakery victims at the Pune district collectorate, pointed out that the terrorist
attack was a tragic incident and no hospital should have asked for or accepted money from victims.

“The Surya Hospital should reimburse the amount they have taken from the victim. The government will anyway compensate the hospital for the cost of treatment they have claimed,” she said.