Court censures private hospitals not offering free treatment

Private hospitals that were set up on subsidized land were censured for not offering free treatment to those from economically weak families.

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed private hospitals in Delhi to allocate 25% of their out-patient department capacity and 10% in patient department capacity for free treatment of poor and the needy.

The apex court bench of Justice RV Raveendran and Justice A.K. Patnaik said private hospitals getting subsidised land must draw up a scheme to provide free treatment to the poor.

About 27 private hospitals are to provide free treatment to patients from weaker sections at 10 percent of the hospital bed-strength.

The court was hearing a plea filed by Social Jurists, a civil society group that alleged that three hospitals - Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Hospital, Moolchand and St Stephen's - didn't comply with the high court's March 2007 order.

The court has ordered the Delhi government to meet with the representatives of 10 hospitals which were not extending their free medical facilities to the patients from weaker sections.

A line must be drawn on the cost that these hospitals will bear on extending free treatment. In some cases, like in the treatment of cancer, the cost of medicine is very high and hospitals may not bear it, the court said.

"Some kind of transparency has to be there. Some scheme has to be worked out. Otherwise they will turn away the poor patients. There has to be some workable scheme," Justice Raveendran was quoted by IANS as saying.

" 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.

Responding to the court's direction, the Centre on Thursday informed it would issue a circular to all private hospitals built on government land allocated at subsidised rates.

The DDA and the Land and Development Office (L&DO) of Delhi government had allotted 70 plots to various trusts and societies to build hospitals, out of which only 26 are operational.

The court has set September 26 for the next hearing.