Hippocratic loathe! How top Delhi hospitals keep out the poor
14 Aug 2014 6:01 AM IST
[Millennium Post Special]
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They have even defied the Supreme Court order that said these hospitals have to cater to the poor for free. Some hospitals had gotten land for as less as Re 1!
Now, in a startling revelation, the Supreme Court appointed Economically Weaker Sections Monitoring committee has found that six major hospitals admitted less than 1% of poor patients and 17 of them admitted less than 5% against the mandatory 10 % beds for the poor in the financial year 2013-14.
The percentage of poor patients treated in the Out Patient Department (OPD) was found less than 10 % in 14 private hospitals against 25 % mandatory requirement.
The hospitals, which admitted such low number of patients, are Rockland Hospital, Dwarka (0.05%) in Inner Patient Department Category (IPD) while just 0.48 percent in OPD category, Rockland Hospital in Qutab was next in the list which admitted 0.07 % in IPD and 4.29 % in OPD category in 2013-14 financial year.
However, Rockland Qutab has now totally banned the poor patients' free category treatment after an order from the Supreme Court on 28 April 2014.
The committee has also observed that the behaviour of these hospitals towards the poor is shameful. In the report, the committee headed by Principal Secretary (Health) of Delhi government monitored data of 45 major private hospitals to find that most of them deliberately push cases requiring surgery and investigations to later dates thereby forcing patients to pay for their treatment or knock the doors of other hospitals.
These hospitals give frivolous reasons to shoo away poor patients or compel them to pay for extremely costly treatment. 'Patients requiring non-critical beds are refused on the context that they require ICU beds which are already occupied,' observed the committee in its report on 7 June, 2014.
Some of the other shocking observations of the report are: hospitals do not provide free medicines in the OPD, while some hospitals are reluctant to provide implants.
Forget treatment to patients who approach them directly, these private hospitals come up with excuses to duck responsibility to treat patients who are referred by government hospitals. These frivolous reasons include patients being transferred without intimation, unavailability of beds, unavailability of experts, not tended to at night even during emergency and allegations that the patient does not belong to the poor category.
Interestingly, the EWS committee has stopped the weekly inspection of private hospitals since last two months. 'I have recently written a letter to Principal Secretary of Delhi government to restart the inspection,' said Ashok Agarwal, member of the EWS monitoring committee.
Often, these hospitals demand BPL card or income certificate, but the rule is to accept a self-declaration form with the patient declaring that his monthly income is less than the minimum wage of the Delhi government i.e. Rs 8,554 per month.
<a href="NewsContent.aspx?NID=65810" class="linkblue4"><b>Part-II »</b></a>
They have even defied the Supreme Court order that said these hospitals have to cater to the poor for free. Some hospitals had gotten land for as less as Re 1!
Now, in a startling revelation, the Supreme Court appointed Economically Weaker Sections Monitoring committee has found that six major hospitals admitted less than 1% of poor patients and 17 of them admitted less than 5% against the mandatory 10 % beds for the poor in the financial year 2013-14.
The percentage of poor patients treated in the Out Patient Department (OPD) was found less than 10 % in 14 private hospitals against 25 % mandatory requirement.
The hospitals, which admitted such low number of patients, are Rockland Hospital, Dwarka (0.05%) in Inner Patient Department Category (IPD) while just 0.48 percent in OPD category, Rockland Hospital in Qutab was next in the list which admitted 0.07 % in IPD and 4.29 % in OPD category in 2013-14 financial year.
However, Rockland Qutab has now totally banned the poor patients' free category treatment after an order from the Supreme Court on 28 April 2014.
The committee has also observed that the behaviour of these hospitals towards the poor is shameful. In the report, the committee headed by Principal Secretary (Health) of Delhi government monitored data of 45 major private hospitals to find that most of them deliberately push cases requiring surgery and investigations to later dates thereby forcing patients to pay for their treatment or knock the doors of other hospitals.
These hospitals give frivolous reasons to shoo away poor patients or compel them to pay for extremely costly treatment. 'Patients requiring non-critical beds are refused on the context that they require ICU beds which are already occupied,' observed the committee in its report on 7 June, 2014.
Some of the other shocking observations of the report are: hospitals do not provide free medicines in the OPD, while some hospitals are reluctant to provide implants.
Forget treatment to patients who approach them directly, these private hospitals come up with excuses to duck responsibility to treat patients who are referred by government hospitals. These frivolous reasons include patients being transferred without intimation, unavailability of beds, unavailability of experts, not tended to at night even during emergency and allegations that the patient does not belong to the poor category.
Interestingly, the EWS committee has stopped the weekly inspection of private hospitals since last two months. 'I have recently written a letter to Principal Secretary of Delhi government to restart the inspection,' said Ashok Agarwal, member of the EWS monitoring committee.
Often, these hospitals demand BPL card or income certificate, but the rule is to accept a self-declaration form with the patient declaring that his monthly income is less than the minimum wage of the Delhi government i.e. Rs 8,554 per month.
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