Chandigarh, November 2
A majority of private hospitals built on government-allotted land are flouting their terms of allotment with impunity. Hospitals that were allotted land on concessional rates by the government had to treat a certain percentage of patients in the out patient department (OPD) and in patient department (IPD) free of cost.

Even while this clause was added to the letters of allotment of such hospitals by the various urban bodies, no system was laid down with which it could be checked if these hospitals actually followed this rule.

The result is that none of these hospitals have ever cared to admit patients belonging to economically weaker sections. “Poor patients don’t come to us. What can we do?” said the owner of one such hospital in Mohali. This hospital like many others in Punjab has to mandatorily treat 10 per cent of OPD patients and another 5 per cent of IPD patients free of cost. The district civil surgeons were asked to send poor patients to these hospitals but it seems even the government health authorities could not find poor patients in the state!

“Faced with a similar situation in private hospitals in New Delhi, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Delhi High Court where it ordered all hospitals built on government land to treat 10 per cent of OPD patients and 25 per cent of IPD patients free of cost. This translated into 1,003 beds in private hospitals in Delhi reserved for poor patients,” said Ashok Agarwal, a Delhi-based advocate and who filed the PIL.

Agarwal added the court also asked the state government to designate “nodal officers” in all government hospitals in Delhi who would refer poor patients to these hospitals. “That took care of the plea that these hospitals do not get poor patients,” said Agarwal, adding that now patients can also come from anywhere in the country for free treatment in these hospitals.

The Delhi government also set up a standing monitoring committee that would inspect these hospitals regularly to check if the requisite number of poor patients were being treated or not. Other than this, the High Court also constituted its own committee to monitor these hospitals.

“Unfortunately there is no central law that ensures a citizen right to health or quality treatment. Missing across the country is a regulator for private hospitals. There is no authority in any state either which monitors the functioning of private hospitals and keep a check on malpractices,” said Agarwal.

Following an SC order of February 2009, it was laid down that in all cases of medical negligence the competent authority should seek a report of medical expert and shall only proceed to issue notice to the doctor in question. “This order if implemented in letter and spirit would have restored balance. The power of preliminary investigation has been transferred to the medical expert but no norms are being followed to carry out the investigations. There is no set procedure for the inquiry and in most cases since doctors tend to support doctors they end up giving clean chits to doctors,” added Vivek Sehgal, an advocate of the Punjab and Haryana HC who deals with cases of medical negligence.

(Concluded)