West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission (WBCERC) has decided to streamline the system of pathological tests for Covid patients in a bid to stop the practice of overcharging bills by a section of private healthcare units for these investigations.

The commission has formed a team of experts comprising senior doctors like general medicine expert Sukumar Banerjee, endocrinologist Subhankar Chowdhury, virologist Bibhuti Saha, Sushruth Bandopadhay and others to prepare a guideline for pathological tests required for coronavirus patients.

Today, the WBCERC headed by retired justice Ashim Kumar Banerjee issued an order saying, “Hence, the Commission feels it expedient to have a model pathological guideline for COVID- 19 treatment with or without coomorbidity.” “For such purpose, the Commission would request the following team of experts to prepare such guideline to help the COVID-19 treatment that would ultimately reduce the financial of the patient and/or the patient party,” the order stated.

“It has come to the notice of the Commission, the clinical establishments are charging hefty amounts on account of pathological tests, some of which are probably unnecessary. The Commission has gone through a recent bill raised by a clinical establishment where a patient was charged Rs 22 odd lakhs out of which about Rs 7 lakh was charged on account of pathological tests,” the commission observed in its order.

“I have heard that the Commission has taken an initiative to stop overcharging of bills for pathological tests for coronavirus patients. The model guideline will focus on rationality of these investigations. Some hospitals are charging Rs 500 for oxygen saturation level tests using pulse oximeter each time. Thus, they are charging Rs 1,500 from a patient for doing the test thrice daily,” said Dr Mukherjee, head of the expert team.

“We are getting information about how some hospitals are doing RT-PCR tests on patients every two or three days’ gap since their admissions. These hospitals giving exorbitant bills to patients. The model guideline will advise the hospitals when a patient requires RT-PCR Covid confirmatory tests, We will discuss all these aspects among our expert team members,” he added.

WBCERC directed private hospitals not to take more than Rs 50,000 or 20 per cent of estimated treatment cost, whichever is lower, as advance during the process related to admissions. Private hospitals will have to give 12 hours to the patient party if they can’t arrange the amount at the time of the patient’s admission. Patients must be admitted to the hospital as an emergency even if the money is not paid within the stipulated time.