Mamata likely to meet senior Apollo officials

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to meet senior officials of Apollo Gleneagles Hospital in connection with allegations of medical malpractice and overcharging patients at the facility here.

According to a senior official at the state secretariat, the meeting between Banerjee and Apollo Gleneagles Managing Director Dr Preetha Reddy is likely to take place on Tuesday.

Incidentally, the Chief Minister had yesterday said that Apollo authorities has sought a time for a meeting.

“Apollo Group has written to us seeking time for a meeting… But it is impossible for me to give time everybody individually,” Banerjee had said yesterday at the state secretariat.

Apollo Gleneagles was in the news for allegedly overcharing patients, medical negligence and other malpractices for which the Chief Minister had pulled them up during a meeting with private hospitals and nursing homes last month.

Soon after the Apollo Gleneagles hospital in the city found itself embroiled in controversy after Dankuni resident Sanjoy Roy died allegedly because of medical negligence and delay in his release.

The state government formed committees to probe into the allegations by Roy’s family as the police started another investigation simultaneously after getting a formal complaint from the deceased’s kin.

Reports filed by the committees have said “medical negligence and other anomalies” in the bills charged by the Apollo Gleneagles.

Incidentally, the state government introduced the West Bengal Clinical Establishments (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Act, 2017 to bring in transparency in the Health system principally monitoring practices at private hospitals and nursing homes.