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Private hospitals getting subsidised land cannot run away from their responsibility to give free treatment to economically weaker sections of society, the Supreme Court has said while asking them to work out a mechanism with Delhi government for ensuring this.
A bench comprising Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice A K Patnaik pulled up some of the hospitals on Thursday for not giving free treatment to the poor.
“Why are you not doing so? Why did you agree to terms and conditions of lease agreement for taking land. If you cannot do so, then pay the market value of the land to the government. We know how much money you make,” the bench said.
It asked the hospitals to sit with government authorities to sort out the issue and work out a scheme to treat the poor patients – 25 per cent outdoor and 10 per cent indoor – free of cost.
In the meantime, the court said that patients from government hospitals be referred to such private hospitals which would provide free treatment.
The court was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by ten hospitals challenging a Delhi high court order directing them to provide free treatment to the poor.
The state government told the court that out of 37 such hospitals 27 are giving treatment to poor patients.
The Delhi High Court had in 2007 ruled that all private hospitals that were granted public land at cheaper rates would provide free treatment to poor patients at the rate of 10 per cent in the Indoor Patient Department (IPD) and 25 per cent in the Outdoor Patient Department (OPD) of their total respective treatment capacities.
“They (poor patients) will be provided free admission, bed, medication, treatment, surgery facility, nursing facility and consumables and non-consumables. The hospitals charging any money from such patients shall be liable to be proceeded against in accordance with the law. Besides that, this would be treated as violation of the orders of the court,” the High Court had said.
The court had pronounced the judgement on a public interest litigation seeking implementation of the land deed agreement entered into with these hospitals providing for, among other things, free treatment to certain percentage of poor patients out of their total treatment capacities.
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