With growing complaints of private hospitals overcharging patients suffering from Covid-19, the Telangana High Court served notices on prominent private hospitals in Hyderabad.

Hearing a petition on Tuesday, the High Court on Tuesday slapped notices on Yashoda, Care, Medicover, Sunshine Hospitals among others. The petitioner argued that the private hospitals were fleecing the patients and sought cost regulation for treatment of COVID-19 patients at private hospitals.

The Telangana government had already capped the treatment cost of corona patients in private hospitals. Costs for corona treatment in the private hospitals were capped at Rs 4,000 per day for general treatment, Rs 7,500 for treatment in Intensive Care Unit-ICU without a ventilator and Rs 9,000 for ICU treatment with a ventilator. However, the petitioner contended that several private hospitals are violating the government’s directive and overcharging the Covid-19 patients.

On May 20, the Telangana High Court had directed the state government to allow private hospitals and diagnostic laboratories to conduct Covid-19 tests. The court also found fault with the government’s order that Covid-19 tests should be conducted only at state-run hospitals and termed this as undemocratic.

The Telangana government had earlier denied permission to private labs and hospitals to deal with COVID-19 cases on the ground that they would fleece people. However, the High Court termed the KCR government’s decision to disallow private hospitals from treating corona patients as unconstitutional.