Maharashtra’s Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope on June 2 said show cause notices had been served to four prominent private city hospitals for not following rules with regard to COVID-19 treatment and warned of strict action against hospitals violating norms.
Tope said the notices had been served to Bombay, Jaslok, Hinduja and Lilavati Hospitals for not adhering to rules related to treatment of COVID-19 patients.
The Health Minister said he visited the four medical facilities following complaints that some private players were not cooperating with patients after the Maharashtra government took over 80 percent of the beds in private hospitals amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
He also tweeted that strict action would be taken against hospitals which will not follow government orders.
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According to an official statement, at the Bombay Hospital, a board displaying information about availability of beds, as required under government norms, was not put up.
At some hospitals, rate cards as decided by the state government for treatment of patients were not displayed, it said.
The Health Minister took stock of reserved beds at all the four facilities and instructed the hospitals to not deny beds to patients, to give timely treatment to them and cooperate, it added.
In a separate matter earlier, the Supreme Court of India (SC) had on May 27 sought to know why private hospitals — which had been given land free of cost or at a concessional rate — could not treat COVID-19 patients for free.
In May, the Maharashtra government had taken control of 80 percent of beds in all private hospitals across the state till August 31.
Brought into effect by an order passed under the Epidemic Diseases Act, the state government also regulated the usage of private hospital bed capacity and capped prices of treatments that can be billed to patients. Hospitals are allowed to charge their own rates in the remaining 20 percent beds.
(With inputs from PTI)
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