Indian hospital detains Guyanese patients

Jun 27, 2009 News

…we are not a charity, says doctor

CHENNAI: There was drama at the Frontier Lifeline Hospital here on Friday when 10 children and two adults from Guyana were detained at the hospital for allegedly defaulting on payment of US$91,250 (about Rs 45 lakh).
They had been brought to the hospital on June 9 for heart surgery by the former First Lady of Guyana, Varshnie Singh.
At 5 pm, when they were to leave for the airport, they were told they wouldn’t be able to do so without making a payment and made to wait in an enclosure outside the casualty ward.
They then wrote “please help” on a placard and showed it to media persons waiting outside. The police were called and complaints lodged.
Later, the patients were moved to their beds and told they would then have to speak to the chairman, Dr K M Cherian, set to arrive later in the night.
“We have been coming here since 2005 and this is our sixth visit. Each time we came, we brought patients. We would go back, raise funds through various activities like cycle races, luncheons, comedy shows and then pay the hospital.
“If the hospital has changed its ways, we should have been told before we got here. We don’t have money now. We will have to raise funds and pay them, though I can’t give a deadline,” Singh told reporters.
Hospital director Dr. Soma Guhathakurtha said: “We told Singh earlier that she would have to pay but she was elusive. She did not even come to the hospital when we are around. The last time she had defaulted US$13,000 and we had to write it off.
“We decided to go ahead with the surgeries because she did not say no to our letter saying they had to pay. We even arranged a trip to Mahabalipuram and a shopping visit. Today, they decided to leave the hospital without even a discharge certificate. We believe they had no intention of paying us though they had raised the money already.”
Chief administrative officer, Jose Manavalan said: “We could not give beds to our patients. Why should we treat them free of cost when even our Indian patients do not get that? We are not a charitable organisation.”
With both the Frontier Lifeline Hospital and Kids First Fund, an international non-governmental organization, having failed to reach an amicable settlement over a bill payment tussle that erupted between them here on Friday, everyone seems to be eagerly awaiting the arrival of Dr K M Cherian, the chairman of the hospital, to bring an end to the drama.
And the 10 children and two adults from Guyana, who were in the city to undergo heart surgery, have been allowed to stay on the hospital premises for an extra night, thanks to the police’s intervention.
The dispute began when the hospital demanded that the NGO pay up immediately for the surgeries and when the NGO made it clear that it could not settle the accounts until they went back home to Guyana and raised funds.
“We have come here five times before and have always paid later, after raising funds. This time, the hospital gave us a letter about a week after we arrived on June 9, asking us to pay the amount immediately,” said Varshnie Singh.
Singh claims that Dr Cherian wanted to meet her before he left for a conference abroad and that the meeting did not take place. “I went to his office but I was told that he had already left,” she said.
Hospital authorities, however, said that Dr Cherian had waited practically all day to meet Singh and alleged that she was trying to avoid a discussion on payment.
Chief Administrative Officer Jose Manavalan told reporters that a debt of US$13,000 was pending from the NGO’s last visit to the hospital. “As they did not pay us that amount, we waived it,” he said.
Disputing this, Varshnie Singh said that during their last visit in 2007, they had paid up the entire bill of US$55,596 in three instalments over a period of seven months, after raising funds in the wake of the surgeries.
Meanwhile, the Guyana party was detained at the hospital after attempting to leave the country by boarding an Air India flight to London.
Who is to blame? In a press release circulated by Frontier Lifeline Hospital on June 12, it was clearly stated that the Varshnie Singh had not raised enough money to cover the cost of the surgeries. “The money will be raised upon the patients’ return to Guyana,” the press release stated. It further stated that ‘the “Heart 2 Heart – Save a Life” programme was a partnership that Singh had established with Dr K.M. Cherian and the Frontier Lifeline Hospital.

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