Two private hospitals, Saifee and Harkisondas, which have treated victims of the blast at Opera House, will not charge state any money, confirmed health ministry sources.
In a meeting held on Monday, representatives of both hospitals told the state that they do not want a single penny from it as charge for treating July 13 serial blasts’ victims.
“Hospital authorities have expressly informed us that they do not want any money from us,” said Suresh Shetty, state health minister who was present in the meeting.
Both hospitals are very close to the blast site at Opera House. They have treated over 100 patients as part of the out patient department and about 40 in the wards, including performing surgeries to remove the shrapnel, orthopaedic surgeries involving amputations to save people’s lives, treating hearing loss and burn injuries, among many other complex procedures.
The accounting officials at Saifee hospital had charged about four blast victims up to Rs25,000. “That was a mistake. We returned the money when we learned of it. I gave my staff a thorough dressing-down for taking money from those victims,” said Dr SJ Bapai, assistant director, public relations and government administration, Saifee hospital.
Bapai added, “We have informed the collector that we do not want a single rupee from the state government.” He said that they have spent nearly Rs2 lakh for some patients such as Baburao Das who succumbed to his injuries last week.
“We have not even asked relatives of the blast victims to replace any blood,” said Bapai.
Medical director Dr PM Bhujang of the Harkisondas Nurrotumdas hospital said, “We have been instructed by Nita Ambani that the treatment will be free, and we will not charge anything. We have ensured that the patients get the best of the treatment.”
