Centre to order hospitals to treat the poor free of cost

The Centre on Thursday told the Delhi high court that it would soon issue a circular asking all private hospitals, built on government land allocated to them at subsidised rates, to provide free treatment to the poor.

The Centre on Thursday told the Delhi high court that it would soon issue a circular asking all private hospitals, built on government land allocated to them at subsidised rates, to provide free treatment to the poor.

HT Image

Advocate S K Dubey made this submission to a bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and G P Mittal on behalf of the union government while seeking two weeks for it to furnish the list of hospitals built on government land.

Allowing the Centre's plea, the court scheduled the matter for next hearing on September 26.

The court had earlier asked the government to furnish it a list of various private hospitals which had been allocated land at subsidised prices on the condition that they would provide free medical treatment to the poor.