News / Local
Mater Dei Hospital sues elderly patient over $22,000 bill
26 Mar 2015 at 02:19hrs | Views
MATER DEI Hospital has filed a lawsuit against an elderly Bulawayo woman who failed to settle a $22,000 medical bill accumulated during her five-month admission to the hospital last year.
According to the summons filed at the Bulawayo High Court on March, 16, 2015, Mater Dei Hospital is the plaintiff while Madeline Wilson, 75, and her husband Nelson Wilson, were cited as the defendants.
Nelson was cited as the second defendant after he offered himself as a guarantor for the medical bills.
Madeline was admitted to the Roman Catholic-run hospital's intensive care unit between May 7 and October, 16, last year after she was diagnosed with Ascitis (a gastroenterological term for an accumulation of fluid in the peritoneal cavity most commonly due to cirrhosis, severe liver disease or metastatic cancer).
According to the Roman Catholic church-run hospital, Madeline owed the institution for among others general hospital services, pharmaceutical drug supply, medication, anaesthesia, theatre recovery, ultrasound scan amounting to $22,324,11.
Mater Dei Hospital through its lawyers, Coghlan and Welsh Legal Practitioners, said despite having been given time to pay, the couple had failed to settle the bill.
According to the hospital's terms and conditions which were agreed upon between the parties, the entire cost of Madeline's treatment was to be payable upon presentation of the account by the hospital.
"It was agreed that in the event of Madeline's failure to settle the account upon demand by the hospital, the defendants would pay interest at the rate which the hospital is charged on overdraft by its commercial bank. The interest is payable from the due date of payment and compounded monthly," said the lawyers.
The lawyers also stated that in the event that the hospital instituted legal proceedings against the defendants for the recovery of the amount due on the account, the defendants undertook to pay the legal costs on an attorney-client scale.
Mater Dei Hospital is also claiming a prescribed interest rate of 13 percent per annum compounded monthly and calculated from October 16, 2014 to the date of full and final payment.
The couple has up to March 30 to enter an appearance to defend against the summons at the offices of the Registrar of the High Court in Bulawayo.
According to the summons filed at the Bulawayo High Court on March, 16, 2015, Mater Dei Hospital is the plaintiff while Madeline Wilson, 75, and her husband Nelson Wilson, were cited as the defendants.
Nelson was cited as the second defendant after he offered himself as a guarantor for the medical bills.
Madeline was admitted to the Roman Catholic-run hospital's intensive care unit between May 7 and October, 16, last year after she was diagnosed with Ascitis (a gastroenterological term for an accumulation of fluid in the peritoneal cavity most commonly due to cirrhosis, severe liver disease or metastatic cancer).
According to the Roman Catholic church-run hospital, Madeline owed the institution for among others general hospital services, pharmaceutical drug supply, medication, anaesthesia, theatre recovery, ultrasound scan amounting to $22,324,11.
According to the hospital's terms and conditions which were agreed upon between the parties, the entire cost of Madeline's treatment was to be payable upon presentation of the account by the hospital.
"It was agreed that in the event of Madeline's failure to settle the account upon demand by the hospital, the defendants would pay interest at the rate which the hospital is charged on overdraft by its commercial bank. The interest is payable from the due date of payment and compounded monthly," said the lawyers.
The lawyers also stated that in the event that the hospital instituted legal proceedings against the defendants for the recovery of the amount due on the account, the defendants undertook to pay the legal costs on an attorney-client scale.
Mater Dei Hospital is also claiming a prescribed interest rate of 13 percent per annum compounded monthly and calculated from October 16, 2014 to the date of full and final payment.
The couple has up to March 30 to enter an appearance to defend against the summons at the offices of the Registrar of the High Court in Bulawayo.
Source - chronicle
