COVID centre fire: patients’ bills missing, mobiles were off, allege kin

Relatives demand probe into alleged destruction of evidence

VIJAYAWADA, ANDHRA PRADESH, 10-08-2020: Police stand outside at Hotel Swarna Palace-cum-Covid care Centre in which 10 patients were killed in fire mishap occured in Vijayawada. Photo: K.V.S. Giri/ THE HINDU

The medical bills and the receipts for the payments made were missing from the hotel-turned-COVID care centre here following the fire mishap that killed 10 people, allege the kin of some patients. They demand an inquiry into the alleged destruction of evidence in the case.

Ten persons died in the centre at Hotel Swarna Palace run by the Ramesh Cardiac and Multispeciality Hospitals on August 9.

The kin told

The Hindu that there was no intimation to them from either the hospital or the hotel management on the fire mishap.

“My brother suffered breathing problems and spoke to the hospital staff around 5.12 a.m. but later his phone remained switched off and the bills kept in the almirah were missing,” said the relative of a deceased patient.

The kin of a woman patient too made the same allegations.

“Doctors said that my mother died of suffocation in the fire mishap. Except the bills, all her other belongings were intact in the room,” her son said.

It is also their common allegation that there was no response from the Ramesh Hospitals when they enquired about their dear ones, after the mishap.

“We called up the hospital several times but there was no response. The government should inquire into the missing of the bills and destruction of evidence,” a family demanded.