Journalist Dies Of COVID-19 After Hospital Refuses Admission Over Advance Payment

Pune: A journalist with a private news channel here succumbed to COVID-19 on Wednesday after a private hospital in Ahmednagar allegedly delayed his treatment over advance payment.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has ordered a probe into the death of the journalist, Pandurang Raikar (42).

According to an Indian Express report, Pandurang was shifted from the Ahmednagar hospital to a better medical facility in Pune after his condition deteriorated on Tuesday evening. He passed away early on Wednesday morning after his saturation level dipped drastically.

His family and friends alleged that the Ahmednagar hospital delayed admitting him unless they made an advance payment of Rs 40,000.

The family said the journalist fell ill on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday and went for COVID-19 test on Monday. The test result came out positive.

The journalist and his wife then went to the private hospital in Ahmednagar. “All this while, Pandurang was feeling uneasy and breathless and required urgent hospital admission. However, the hospital refused to admit him. They asked him to pay Rs 40,000 as advance,” a relative said.

He added that it was only after the intervention of the district collector and tehsildar that the journalist was admitted by the private hospital.

“However, it took nearly two hours for admission. Even as his condition was deteriorating, he was not given any treatment or any medicine by the hospital,” the relative alleged, adding had he received timely treatment, Pandurang would have survived.

When contacted, Ahmednagar district collector Rahul Dwivedi said, “As soon as I got the information, I directed the hospital to immediately admit the patient. As for the allegations from the family regarding demand for advance payment, we are looking into it.”