Ignoring poor patients can land hosp mgmt in jail …….Prafulla Marpakwar
Mumbai: Governor S C Jamir promulgated an ordinance on Saturday that can send the management of a charitable hospital to jail if it fails to provide free treatment to poor patients. Bombay Hospital, Lilavati, Jaslok and Hinduja are a few of such private facilities.
We have amended the Bombay Public Trust Act to ensure that if a charitable hospital refuses to treat a poor patient, the responsible person/s in the hospital will be sent to jail, a senior official told TOI.
So far, the Bombay Public Trust Act provisions stated that a hospital can be fined anything between Rs 100 and Rs 2,000 if it refused to comply with the charity commissioners office order of free treatment or concession for a poor patient. Now, the Act has been amended to provide for simple imprisonment, which may extend to three months, or a fine, which may go up to Rs 20,000, or both for the accused.
Nearly six months ago, some hospitals had refused to admit patients, recommended by the charity commissioners office without any reasons. Later, an ad hoc committee was set up to review the implementation of the Bombay Public Trust Act. According to the guidelines, a charitable hospital is supposed to keep 10% of the beds reserved for BPL patients and another 10% for poor residents. For BPL patientswith an annual income of less than Rs 20,000the hospital has to provide free treatment, while for EMS patientsannual income of less than Rs 50,000the management has to pay 50% of the total bill.
The senior official said, though all charitable hospitals have obtained huge grants from the Centre as well as the state, when it came to providing free treatment, they refused to oblige.