Covid-19 Nepal: Thanks to no action, private hospitals charge patients as they please

In the last week of April, M (Name changed) went to Mediciti Hospital in Nakhhu after suffering from Covid-19. Fifty-five-year-old M spent around a month at the hospital and used all its major services as he needed a ventilator to stay alive. By the time he was discharged, his hospital bills reached as high as Rs 4 million. The bill was more than he thought it would be, but having lived, he took a loan and paid the hospital.

“Government hospitals were full. Most of them are not as professional, which is why I had come here. But, now, I realise these hospitals are not meant for middle-class people like me,” he says on the condition of anonymity.