E-Paper
IMA-PMC row over pending medical licences of small hospitals intensifies
Dr Jadhav admits to following state directives, IMA asks her to show a copy of directive
The Indian Medical Association (Pune chapter) has accused the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) assistant medical health officer Dr Vaishali Jadhav of bullying small hospitals in the city by withholding renewal of their medical licences.
On August 8, Dr Padma Iyer, IMA Pune president, and honorary secretaries Dr Rajkumar Shah and Dr Meenakshi Deshpande wrote a hard-hitting letter to Ramaling Mali, Maharashtra nursing council president, with copies to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and health officials in government and PMC.
The letter drew attention to a report in HT on August 7 ‘Medical licence renewal row: Jobs for nurses emerges as key issue in PMC’s standoff with hospitals’, the IMA has stressed that ‘Retrospective implementation of any rules is bad in law’.
The letter categorically states that the Bombay Nursing Home act under which all hospitals are registered with PMC “does not enforce employment of qualified nurses registered with Maharashtra Nursing Council”.
While Dr Jadhav has stated that she is following the state government directives, the IMA has accused her of ‘relying on some directives of Maharasthra State Government’ and failing to show a copy of the directives to the IMA.
“To the best of our knowledge, there is no such government resolution or gazette notification published by the Maharashtra government,” the IMA letter states.
“A letter from Maharashtra nursing council ‘requesting’ that nurses working in hospitals should be registered with the council cannot be taken as directive of the government,” the IMA has said, adding that there are no rules published by the PMC regarding requirement of qualified nurses registered with Maharashtra nursing council.
“If there are any such rules, they can be implemented only after getting them approved from Maharashtra government and giving adequate time after the date of their publication,” it has said.
The IMA has pointed out that most of the hospitals in the city have been functional for the last five to 35 years or more and none of them had any problem during renewal in 2015.
It has stated that for small nursing homes which are closely supervised by post-graduate doctors, mostly from same family or groups, unqualified nurses trained in nursing schools or by hospitals themselves should be permitted.
Stating that “members of IMA have suffered enough at the hands of PMC health department,” it has warned that the responsibility of consequences of any steps taken by IMA will be directly on PMC health department and Maharashtra nursing council.”
State health officials extend support to PMC
The Maharashtra government’s health department has now stepped in with a clarification on the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) refusal to renew medical licences of small nursing homes in Pune on multiple grounds, including failure to employ nurses registered with the Maharashtra Nursing Council (MNS).
On Wednesday, Dr Archana Patil, additional director health services and head of Family Welfare Bureau, Maharashtra, told HT that “It is indeed compulsory for a hospital to submit all the documents which are being asked for and nurses’ registration certificate from the Maharashtra Nursing Council is a must”.
She said hospitals need to employ only registered and qualified nurses in their set-up. “We fail to understand why the hospitals are being adamant and stubborn on not adhering to the norms. They must understand and cooperate with the local officials as it is important to do so if we consider public health as priority,” she said.
Dr Patil maintained that the state government’s circular to the PMC on the basis of which the civic body’s health department has withheld renewal of medical licence is based on the provisions of the Bombay Nursing Home act itself. “We are not issuing any new regulation that any hospital will have a problem to follow. If quality care is taken into consideration, hospitals will have to follow the norms for renewal of their licences,” she said.
Dr Sanjeev Kamble, director of health, Maharashtra, said that doctors and hospitals need to understand it is unsafe to hire nurses which are not registered.
He said the norm relating to registered nurses for licence renewal of a hospital was always there but was not implemented seriously. “But now, last year, in Vidhan Sabha it was decided not to compromise on any document and hospitals will have to produce all the required certificates and registrations. In case the hospitals have problems, they can directly approach us,” he said.
