HC grants state 4 weeks to submit report on action on pvt nursing homes

The court has also asked the Director Health Services to comply with a 2017 order of the HC which directed the department to file monthly action taken reports

Mumbai The Bombay high court (HC) has granted four weeks’ time to the state government through the health department to file a report on the action taken on the 6,742 private nursing homes across the state that were found violating norms of the Maharashtra Nursing Homes Registration Act and Mumbai Nursing Homes Registration Rules.

The list of violating private hospitals had been prepared after the health department conducted a survey based on a 2017 order of the HC (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

The court has also asked the Director Health Services to comply with a 2017 order of the HC which directed the department to file monthly action taken reports.

The list of violating private hospitals had been prepared after the health department conducted a survey based on a 2017 order of the HC. The HC had passed an order while hearing a public interest litigation filed by a Pune resident who lost his father in 2014 due to the carelessness of the doctors in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a private nursing home as they had administered a wrong dosage.

During the hearing of the PIL on July 7, the petitioner Atul Bhosale, through advocate Yuvraj Narvankar, informed the bench of justice A K Menon and justice Makarand Karnik that the department had not complied with the 2017 order of the HC. The HC order had directed the department to submit monthly reports on the progress of the investigation and action taken by the department against private nursing homes and hospitals which were found flouting norms.

Though in 2016 Bhosale had filed a PIL seeking an inquiry into the private hospital in which his father had died, the scope of the PIL was widened to cover all such private nursing homes and hospitals in the state. In 2017, the court had directed the State Health Services Department to conduct a survey and list out the names of private hospitals and nursing homes that did not follow proper medical, safety and infrastructural norms.

After the department had submitted that they had inspected more than 35,000 private hospitals of which 6,742 hospitals had been found with irregularities, the court had directed the department to start taking action against these hospitals and file monthly reports on the progress of the action being taken and updates on any names being added to the list.

On July 7, Narvankar submitted that when the reports had been sought through queries under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, it came to light that while the violations by hospitals had been mentioned, no action had been initiated against many of them across the state. The bench was informed that the reports showed that while some hospitals did not have proper amenities and medical facilities, others did not follow fire safety norms, while some others did not have qualified doctors nor did they maintain proper records (as required by the rules) of the cases treated by them.

The court was also informed that monthly reports as directed by the HC were also not available and hence the previous order of the HC was not complied with.

On its part, the state through additional government pleader Manish Pabale sought some time to comply with the 2017 order of the HC.

After hearing the request, the bench while allowing the state four weeks to comply said, “Time is sought to comply with the order dated September 20, 2017 to the extent it directs the Director of Health Services to file reports on a monthly basis setting out progress of the cases registered against illegal nursing homes and hospitals and will continue to file similar reports on a monthly basis in respect of all fresh cases as well.”