‘Fake Covid-19 results’: 8 including Regent Hospital director, manager held
Rab today detained eight staffers of Regent Hospital, including a director and its manager, on charge of issuing fake Covid-19 test certificates and collecting money from Covid-19 patients while violating agreements with the government.
Hospital chairman Md Shahed and managing director went into hiding after the drive began in the afternoon, said executive magistrate Sarwoer Alam, who led the drive.
Sarwoer said the hospital authorities so far issued more than 10,000 Covid-19 test results. Around 4,200 samples were tested in different government labs. But, they threw away rest of the samples, prepared fake reports and issued those to patients without testing, he told The Daily Star.
The hospital authorities have taken Tk 3,500 for each test, meaning they embezzled more than Tk 3.5 crore, as they had an agreement with the government to conduct tests and provide treatment free of cost, he said.
"We first received complaints about 14 fake reports provided by the hospital… We carried out the raid after Institute of Public Health certified that those were fake," Sarwoer said, adding they seized 45 fake reports during the drive.
During the drive, some hospital staffers demonstrated how they produced fake reports, Sarwoer said
"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 staffers 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 agreement with the government but they charged patients as well as submitted a bill to the government.
A case will be filed against the chairman, managing director, some other top officials and staffers involved in the crime, Sarwoer said.
The magistrate said they have found evidence validating the allegations against the Regent Hospital authorities. Some staffers admitted their crimes.
The Daily Star managed to reach chairman of the hospital Md Shahed on the phone at 10:45pm. He said, "I won't make any comment at this moment. I'll speak after the raid is over."
Earlier, the hospital's Managing Director Mizanur Rahman filed a general diary with Uttara West Police Station on July 3, claiming that a vested quarter has been taking money and collecting samples for Covid-19 test from suspected patients by identifying themselves as Regent Hospital staff.
"Such activities are tarnishing the reputation of the hospital's dedication in providing medical services to the patients," he added in the GD, requesting law enforcers to look into the matter.
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