ELURU: Officials of the Andhra Pradesh Medical And Health Department on Saturday busted an illegal COVID-19 treatment racket that was quietly thriving at a private hospital here. They seized Murali Krishna Multi-Speciality Hospital on charges of illegally carrying out COVID-19 treatment and fleecing patients with exorbitant bills.

A team comprising Eluru revenue department personnel besides District Medical and Health Officer raided the hospital and seized Remdesivir injection doses worth Rs 10 lakh. The hospital is not among the authorised list of centres that are permitted to treat COVID-19 patients.

Soon after descending on the hospital, DMHO Dr Sunanda, MRO Chandrasekhar and the RDO swung into investigation on the premises. Their inquiries threw up several startling revelations. The authorities have found out that the hospital has been charging a staggering Rs two lakh per day for a coronavirus-infected person. The hospital is also found to be charging others at Rs one lakh per day for treatment at their facility.

Even worse, the authorities have also unearthed that the hospital management have been including ventillator charges even without providing the facility to their patients. Also, coronavirus patients are also being forced to cough additional charges of Rs 10,000 every day under the pretext of providing PPE kits. The authorities found to their shock a total of 18 COVID-19 patients being illegally treated at the hospital at the time of their raid.

The authorities later shifted all the patients to another authorised hospital and the investigation into the hospital's excesses is underway.