Malappuram: A bizarre incident has taken place in Kerala where a patient was treated for Covid despite being tested negative for it. In the light of the incident, the District Consumer Commission has ordered a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the doctor and hospital for concealing this information from the patient.

The verdict is based on a complaint filed by the patient Soji Rani, a native of Ernakulam in Kerala against the hospital.

On May 26, 2021, the complainant sought treatment at the hospital with her husband due to some health problems. An antigen test was conducted given her symptoms but the test result was ‘indeterminate’. Since it was not possible to say whether she had COVID-19 or not, an RT-PCR test was conducted immediately. 

This time, the test result was negative but the complainant was not informed of this. She was instead admitted to the intensive care ward. The complainant came to know that the COVID-19 test result was negative when she got a chance to see her husband on the third day. 

She then got discharged of her own accord and left the hospital. After two weeks, she sought treatment at another private hospital. This time it was understood that she had kidney related health ailments which the former doctor mistook as Covid symptoms.

The doctor and the hospital informed the commission that the complainant had COVID symptoms, that the medicines were administered in accordance with the COVID protocol, and that if the COVID test result was suspicious, the RTPCR test was only advised to be repeated after a specified interval.

However, the commission observed that none of the tests conducted confirmed that the complainant had the disease and that there was no justification for giving the medicine to the complainant, the medicines that were prescribed only for a person with a fatal COVID condition. 

The hospital violated the existing protocol for COVID treatment in the state and the protocol approved by the Medical Council of India. In this situation, the commission, headed by K. Mohandas, President and Preethi Sivaraman and C.V. Mohammed Ismail, ordered the hospital to pay Rs. 5 lakh as compensation and Rs. 25,000 as court costs for the complainant.