Fortis charged Adya's parents over 1,208 percent more for medical devices: NPPA

The Fortis Memorial hospital in Gurugram charged 12081737 percent more than procurement price for much of the medical equipment including disposable syringes and three way stop cocks to the parents of sevenyearold dengue patient Adya who had died at the hospital despite undergoing treatment for two weeks according to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority NPPAThe national pricing body through its letter dated November 25 had sought all the copies of the invoicebills raised name of the medicines administered to the patient along with details of quantity or price charged to the patientAccording to the bills uploaded to the NPPA website after they were submitted to it the procurement cost of the disposable syringes were Rs 1529 but the family was charged Rs 200 per syringe The procurement prices for three way stop cocks used for infusion and invasive blood pressure monitoring was Rs 577 however the hospital charged the parents Rs 106 per unit making them earn a margin of 1737 per centOther equipments such as pressure monitoring line of 200 cm was procured by hospital at Rs 17 while the parents were charged Rs 225 per pressure monitoring line making the hospital earn a margin of 1201 percent The hospital had procured suction catheter thumb control for Rs 765 but the family was charged Rs 64 per pieceAccording to the reports the hospital charged the patients family for every medical equipments by over 25 to 1208 percent NPPA will be taking up necessary action as per the existing law said an order by the NPPA issued on FridayAdya a Class 2 student developed high fever on August 27 Her Dwarkabased family said they rushed her to Rockland Hospital in Dwarka two days later Tests confirmed she was suffering from dengue However since her condition worsened and Rockland suggested that she be transferred to another hospital she was taken to Fortis where she remained on life support for two weeksFortis raised a bill for 1600 gloves 660 syringes highend antibiotics and sugar strips according to family member On September 14 an MRI revealed extensive damage to the brain We decided to take her to another hospital but Fortis doctors refused to even facilitate an ambulance the girls father had said in a statement when the case came into limelightAdya died September 1415 midnight while being shifted to Rockland Hospital without lifesupport equipment in the ambulance The case came to light after bereaved father Jayant Singhs friend posted it on Twitter on November 17 recounting how the family was billed Rs 16 lakh including for 1600 gloves but the girl could not be savedAccording to the reports of NPPA the highest margins were earned in consumables such as like syringes catheters IV sets blood transfusion sets gloves and masks The hospital constituted along with drugs 3040 per cent of most hospital bills The pricing body also in its reports unveiled that the hospital earned 900 per cent margins on some nonscheduled drugs and up to 300 per cent on many scheduled under price control drugsThe blood transfusion sets which were procure at Rs 1285 were charged for Rs 126 with 881 per cent margin and gloves for examination were procured for Rs 134 but sold at Rs 950 with a margin of 609 per cent said the NPPA adding threeway extension line was procured for Rs 1848 while it was sold at Rs 225 with a margin of 1118 per cent Following the incident two FIRs including that of culpable homicide have been registered against Gurugrams Fortis hospital management and doctorsThe hospital will also face civil action on three counts in the case a Haryana government official told IANS adding that Health Minister Anil Vij had already ordered for both criminal and civil action against the Fortis Memorial Research Institute