My 79 years old father, retired professor from Delhi University, was admitted to a Corporate hospital in Noida for check up for his Parkinson. He did not have any symptoms of COVID. However the hospital required him to undertake COVID test before admission.

We were informed after two days that he had tested positive and all this while we were not allowed to see him since he was in a hold up area. For five weeks after this, my father continued to test positive for COVID 19, as informed to us verbally by the hospital. All this time we were not provided with any COVID reports and the only documents that we received from the hospital were medical bills which were running in lakhs.

There was no transparency  in the treatment that was being provided to our father.  and we had no way to confirm what was going inside the ICU. After five weeks we decided to opt for discharge against medical advise and received our father in a terrible physical and mental condition. After two weeks at a Government COVID facility our father finally recovered from COVID and came home. He passed away ten days later, after coming back home.

My earnest request to health ministry is to make all hospitals accountable and transparent about the treatment that is being provided to COVID patients. Given that family is not allowed to see the patient, and wherein patient is not in a state to contact family, health bulletins with visual image or CC TV access to be given to families.  At the end of the day, after spending 11.5 lacs, we are still struggling with the question whether my father was treated correctly or was he a victim of corporate scam.