M'luru: Consumer court directs nursing home to pay Rs 5L for overcharging

Mangaluru: A consumer court has directed a nursing home in Mangaluru to pay Rs 5 lakhs to a petitioner for overcharging a patient above the prescribed price limit.

The petitioner Roshan Raj, husband of the patient approached the consumer court alleging that the nursing home had overcharged them.

On May 29, 2019, Roshan’s wife was admitted to the nursing home for delivery. She gave birth to twins on the same day. The obstetrician advised that the twins be admitted to the NICU as they were underweight.

Accordingly, the children were kept under observation from May 29 to June 15. The nursing home raised a bill of Rs 5,34,791 for which payment was made on June 15.

Roshan Raj lodged a complaint with the district health officer about the overcharging, but no inquiry was conducted.

Later Roshan lodged a complaint with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and state Health Minister Sriramulu. Following this, the central government had directed the district health officer to register a complaint and conduct an inquiry. However, the district health department officials were negligent. As a last resort, Roshan approached the district consumer court.

After hearing arguments from both sides, Consumer Court Judge Prakash K. directed the nursing home to pay Rs 5 lakh to the petitioner within six weeks.