Deepak*, a  32-year-old resident of Mahadevapura on July 18 developed a breathing problem and high temperature. As his job involves going from door-to-door, he feared that he had contracted the novel coronavirus, so he got himself tested the next day. Within two days, he got the test result and it came back positive. Fearing that his condition would worsen, he was admitted to a private hospital in Goraguntepalya on July 22. 

Jagadeesh, a relative of the patient said, “It was me who suggested to him to get tested as he said he had lost his sense of taste. But even before his test results came back he was fine and back to normal. The BBMP suggested that we visit the government hospital to get a formal medical opinion. But my brother-in-law suggested that we go to a private establishment, so we decided to go there as all other hospitals we called said they were not available.”

“Even the attendees at the hospital said that since his blood oxygen saturation level is good, he won’t need hospitalisation. But the doctor saw him and prescribed admission and now we are being charged Rs 22,000 per day in a 9-person ward. They are not discharging him even though BBMP officials told them to move him to a quarantine facility,” he added.

Jagadesh fears that even though Deepak is fine, staying in a nine-bed ward puts him at a higher risk of cross infection.

He further said, “We have asked the hospital to at least shift him to a normal bed as it is draining us financially.”

When asked about the incident, Suhas, a nodal officer who is involved in ensuring implementation of government rates in hospitals, said that he would look into the matter.

This incident comes even as Bengaluru is facing a shortage of hospital beds, high flow oxygen and ventilators in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, this is not the only instance that TNM has learnt about where private hospitals did not want to allow asymptomatic patients to be shifted into a COVID Care Centre (CCC) or go into home isolation, despite government orders. In fact, incidents of private hospitals forcibly charging exorbitant rates in the name of COVID-19 treatment, without the patients getting a lab report confirming the same, have also come to light.

Another such instance was reported from the northern Yelahanka zone in the city, where a family of three; a 53-year-old man, his wife and daughter, were admitted to a private hospital after consulting with local Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials.

The family was admitted to a private hospital on Ballari Road and were charged Rs 30,000 collectively per day and given a single room for two weeks. While the man was symptomatic, his wife and child were asymptomatic, the family says, adding that the hospital did not discharge them for 10 days despite this.

The family was admitted on June 22 and was discharged only on July 4. While the man had received a COVID-19 positive report, the wife and the child never got a formal report or even an SMS from the lab or the BBMP.

“After two or three days, none of them showed any symptoms and they asked if they could be isolated at home. The hospital’s management did not allow them to do so, though they were not being administered any medicines. The mother and the child never got their report, so till today, we do not know if they ever contracted the virus,” Om Prakash Reddy, a close relative of the family, said.

The family says that BBMP officials were of not much help either, despite multiple complaints.

“There was also discrepancy in the BU (Bangalore Urban serial number allotted to positive patients) number as shown by the hospital and the government website. We did not get any clarity,” Om Prakash said.

“This had caused them a lot of mental hardship and till date, we have not been given any relief," he added.

While officials say that priority should be given to freeing hospital beds for symptomatic patients who need timely medical observation, such decisions by private hospitals are also in violation of a government circular issued on June 23.

In another instance, a 54-year-old man who is an asthma patient had breathing difficulties on July 22 and was admitted to a private hospital on the same day. The hospital conducted a rapid antigen test which came back negative. By July 24, his family says that he felt fine and did not want to stay in the hospital any longer.

"That is when the hospital told us that he has COVID-19. We asked them how they could say that. In fact, his wife is a doctor and asked why they did not do an RT-PCR test. On the next day, an RT-PCR test was conducted on him, which came back negative on July 26. He was finally discharged on Monday (July 27) morning and was billed Rs 4 lakh," a relative told TNM requesting anonymity.

Dr Om Prakash Patil, Director at Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Services (state health department) confirmed that the department has received complaints regarding such instances and is reviewing them. He declined to name hospitals which had allegations against them.