Friday, 29 March, 2024, 1:47 PM
Advance Search
Home

Issuing Fake C-19 Certificates

Govt orders shutdown of Regent Hospital branches

Published : Wednesday, 8 July, 2020 at 12:00 AM  Count : 387

The government has ordered a shutdown of two branches of Regent Hospital in the capital's Uttara and Mirpur on charges of issuing fake Covid-19 test reports and collecting money from patients.
"We have asked them to close the hospitals immediately," Aminul Hasan, director (hospital) of DGHS said.
The move comes after the head office of Regent Group and its hospital at Uttara were sealed off on the same charges on Tuesday.
Executive Magistrate Sarwoer Alam along with a team of RAB-1 conducted a drive there and sealed off the head office and the hospitals after they found irregularities.
    "We have decided to seal off the head office from where the misdeeds were being carried out. The patients of the hospital have already been shifted elsewhere," Sarwoer said.
During the drive, RAB detained eight staffers of Regent Hospital, including a director and its manager, on charges of issuing fake Covid-19 test certificates and collecting money from patients.
Magistrate Sarwoer said the hospital authorities so far issued more than 10,000 Covid-19 test results. Around 4,200 samples were tested at different government labs. But they threw away rest of the samples, prepared fake reports and issued those to patients without testing, the magistrate said.
The hospital authorities took Tk 3,500 for each test, meaning they embezzled more than Tk 3.5 crore, despite having agreement with the government to conduct tests and provide treatment free of cost, Sarwoer said.
"We first received complaints about 14 fake reports provided by the hospital. We carried out the raid after the Institute of Public Health certified that those were fake," Sarwoer said, adding they seized 45 fake reports during the drive.
"As the hospital authorities came to know that some people made complaints, they held a press conference a couple of days ago and filed a general diary against some staff to pass the buck on them and avoid legal action," he said.
RAB officials said the hospital authorities were supposed to treat patients free of cost as per the agreement with the government but they charged patients and submitted a bill to the government.
RAB also seized unauthorised testing kits and a car with flag stand and sticker of the Health Department during the raid. They suspected that the owner and chairman of the hospital, Md Shahed, used to use the vehicle to mislead the law enforcement agencies, said Sarwoer.
A case will be filed against the chairman, managing director, some other top officials and staffers involved in the crime, he said.









Latest News
Most Read News
Editor : Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury
Published by the Editor on behalf of the Observer Ltd. from Globe Printers, 24/A, New Eskaton Road, Ramna, Dhaka.
Editorial, News and Commercial Offices : Aziz Bhaban (2nd floor), 93, Motijheel C/A, Dhaka-1000.
Phone: PABX- 41053001-06; Online: 41053014; Advertisement: 41053012.
E-mail: info©dailyobserverbd.com, news©dailyobserverbd.com, advertisement©dailyobserverbd.com, For Online Edition: mailobserverbd©gmail.com
  [ABOUT US]     [CONTACT US]   [AD RATE]   Developed & Maintenance by i2soft