KARACHI: Legal Aid Society, a Karachi-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), on Tuesday approached the Sindh High Court (SHC) over the exorbitant treatment fees being charged by the private hospitals from the patients of the Covid-19.
The petition, a copy of which is available with Pakistan Today, observes that the private healthcare facilities including Aga Khan University Hospital and Dr Ziauddin Hospital are charging as much as Rs150,000 per day for a bed in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Rs100,000 a day for a spot in the general ward.
It further states that the hospitals nominated in the petition are not only “grossly overcharging” but also “exploiting [the] patients” by denying them the 25 per cent discount guaranteed for the senior citizens under the constitution.
Speaking to Pakistan Today over the phone, the NGO’s Executive Director Haya Emaan Zahid lamented the “enormous fees” being charged from the coronavirus patients in particular. “Imagine, with Rs100,000 per day charges, a person who stays at the facility for a week will have to pay Rs700,000 [sic],” she said.
“The treatment cost [at private hospitals] is ridiculously high,” she further said, adding: “We do not want to criticise the hospitals’ administrations. We only want them to revise their charges in line with costs.”
“On top of it, you [hospitals] do not even give the [25pc] concession to the senior citizens.”
The excessive cost of Covid-19 tests is yet another issue. Private laboratories are charging as much as Rs7,900 per test. “How is a daily wager who earns a meager Rs4000/4500 a month supposed to get himself tested,” asked Mohammed Razi, a resident of Lahore’s Defence Housing Authority.
Last month, the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had called on the federal government to bear the cost of the Covid-19 tests for the poor.
“How can we expect these poor people to pay for tests for coronavirus?” PPP Senator Rehman Malik had said in a letter to Federal Secretary for Interior retired Maj Azam Suleman Khan.
According to Zahid, the petition seeks effective enforcement of the judgement passed last year in the Darul Sukun and other versus the government of Sindh case.
While acknowledging the lack of proper legislation to keep the private hospitals’ invoices under check, the petition maintains that the situation became grimmer since most of the public health facilities reached full capacity amid a sudden surge in the number of positive cases in the province.
The management of Aga Khan Hospitals was not available for comment until the filing of this report.
Fixing the petition for hearing on June 16, the court issued call-up notices to the respondents including Sindh Advocate General Barrister Zameer Hussain Ghumro and Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah.
