Ghaziabad police have registered a complaint against the city's well-known Yashoda Hospital on charges of cheating and extortion of a retired Indian Air Force officer, who was admitted there for treatment, police said on Monday.
The officer was allegedly forced to buy expensive medicines from the hospital pharmacy despite being covered under the central government's Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) and was told that if certain medicines were not bought, his life would be at risk.
Angry over the hospital's "tricks to extort money", the officer's son Amit Tyagi lodged a complaint at the Indirapuram Police Station on February 24 last.
The FIR was registered after the Ghaziabad Chief Medical Officer (CMO) submitted its report against the hospital on the instruction of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's office from Lucknow. The report supports the officer's allegations of cheating and extorting money.
"It seems that the patient was referred to another hospital due to the patient's complaint regarding charging of payments in violation of ECHS rules to provide cashless treatment," the CMO's report states.
According to the FIR, the retired IAF officer -- Sergeant Yashvir Singh Tyagi -- was admitted on 26/05/2016 with a history of carcinoma soft palate and some other complications.
During the treatment, the condition of the patient worsened from "acute renal failure" to "chronic kidney disease". Later, the patient was referred to Fortis Hospital in Noida allegedly after Yashoda Hospital authorities came to know about the complaint against them.
The FIR seeks legal action against Director of the hospital Upasna Arora, Dr. Vikram Grover and others. However, while the column in the FIR provided for giving the names of suspect/accused does mention the names of Dr. A.P. Singh, Dr. Vikram Grover and Dr. Sudhir Tyagi, Director Upasna Arora's name does not find a mention there.
"The FIR has been registered and arrests would be made soon," said SP City of Ghaziabad Salman Taj Patil.
When the officer was informed about the anomaly -- omission of Director Upasna Arora's name from the list of suspects in the FIR, the SP City said: "It does not make any difference. If the (FIR) content has her name, she would be treated as a suspect and the investigation would include her role also."
The FIR further states that after admitting the officer, the hospital told Yashvir Singh Tyagi's son to buy medicines from the hospital pharmacy, saying that certain items were not covered under ECHS.
Amit had to buy costly medicines from the pharmacy several times. Although Amit met consultant Dr. Vikram Grover, who talked to the ECHS officials and said no medicines would be bought any further, they kept forcing Amit to buy medicines.
On May 5, 2016, Dr. A.P. Singh told Amit that his father was critical, so they were referring him to the Army's Research & Referral Hospital. But Amit preferred to get his father shifted to the nearby Fortis Hospital, where attending doctor told him that his father was alright. After nine days of treatment in ICU, they shifted him to a private room and also did not charge any cash.
Amit then lodged the complaint with the Managing Director of ECHS. Later, Amit lodged similar complaints with the Prime Minister's Office, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's Office, CEO of the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers, and the Union Health Minister. He also posted the matter on social media.
Following his complaints, the hospital authorities, instead of addressing the complaint, started threatening him. Finally, Ghaziabad police registered the FIR against the hospital.
--IANS
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