PMC serves show-cause notice to 37 private hospitals

The action comes in the wake of a citywide inspection of nursing homes and hospitals registered with the PMC under the Nursing Home Act

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) health department has served show-cause notice to 37 private hospitals for allegedly violating the Bombay Nursing Home Registration Act, 1949; and Maharashtra Nursing Home Registration (Amendment) Rules, 2021; officials said on Monday.

As many as 350 hospitals and nursing homes across 15 wards were inspected between July 1 and December 31, 2025 as part of the PMC’s biannual drive to check compliance with fire safety, hygiene, patient rights, proper records, and quality care. (REPRESENTATIVE PIC)

The action comes in the wake of a citywide inspection of nursing homes and hospitals registered with the PMC under the Nursing Home Act. As many as 350 hospitals and nursing homes across 15 wards were inspected between July 1 and December 31, 2025 as part of the PMC’s biannual drive to check compliance with fire safety, hygiene, patient rights, proper records, and quality care. The most common violations included absence of a valid fire no-objection certificate (NOC), non-display of the patients’ charter of rights, missing treatment tariff lists, non-availability of complaint books, and nursing staff appointments in violation of prescribed norms. In many cases, the hospitals had also failed to display the doctors’ qualifications, grievance redressal details, and contact numbers, according to Dr Suryakant Devkar, assistant health officer of the PMC. “Healthcare facilities are required to clearly display the patients’ rights, treatment tariff and grievance mechanisms. Fire safety compliance is non-negotiable,” Dr Devkar said.

Dr Devkar further said, “Show-cause notice has been issued, and all hospitals have been given one month to complete the compliance. After the hospitals submit the compliance report, a reinspection of these hospitals will be carried out. If the hospitals are again found lacking in compliance, stringent action will be taken against them as per the provisions of the Nursing Home Act.”

Whereas Dr Sanjay Patil, national secretary, Hospital Board of India, said, “All mandatory compliance has been completed by all the hospitals in the city, which is carried out during registration of the hospital. The procedure for getting an online fire NOC is tedious as most of the time, the website is not operational. The treatment tariff requested by the PMC doctors during inspection has no uniformity and as per the rules, only 16 treatment tariffs should be displayed. The PMC should work as a facilitator for effective implementation and compliance with the Nursing Home Act.”

There are as many as 850 nursing homes and hospitals registered with the PMC. The ward medical officers of the PMC were directed to conduct the inspection and serve notices to hospitals found violating norms. However, a large number of private hospitals in the city remain uninspected. Earlier last year, the PMC had inspected all 850 facilities registered with it between January and June 2025 and served notices to 91 errant private hospitals.