Didi cracks the whip But...

It was seen as a master stroke of Mamata Banerjee to come down heavily on private hospitals, including some leading national hospital chains, across the state. The move, following the unfortunate death of an accident victim on alleged medical negligence and financial exploitation by a premier private hospital chain, has gone down well among a vast majority, as many people have been victims of alleged ‘excess billing’ or ‘medical negligence’ by private hospitals.

But now with at least two of the leading national hospital chains giving indirect threats to move out of the state, it will be an acid test for the West Bengal chief minister to keep them in the state, because many fear if big hospitals like Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals finally move out of the state, public mood and sentiment may swing against the state government.

It had all begun with the minister of consumer affairs, self-help group and self-employment, Sadhan Pandey, on February 17, saying, "We have noticed that hospitals are charging more than the packages patients had taken up during admission there. They were also transferring them to the ICU and sometimes to ventilation, adding up to the bills... We will have a thorough discussion on these issues during the meeting (with hospital representatives)”

A week later, on February 24, the chief minister held a meeting with all hospital representatives and accused the hospitals of malpractices like over-billing, unnecessary ICU admissions, holding back patient records, unjustified use of ventilators and not releasing bodies till bills were paid. She also announced the formation of the West Bengal Health Regulatory Commission to screen private hospitals.

Banerjee’s move, while being hailed by common citizens, immediately sparked off a controversy and debate with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) raising questions over how can only private doctors be brought under a commission and government hospital doctors kept out of its purview. That’s not all, IMA even threatened to initiate legal actions against the bill.

The Association of Hospitals of Eastern India (AHEI), on its part, said that there is no harm in such a commission playing the ‘third umpire’ and help addressing grievances. While AHEI did not accept that every hospital is guilty of malpractices, it agreed that there was scope for improvement.

Amidst all these, the state legislative assembly last week passed a bill to regulate the functioning of private health facilities, that provide for up to three-years’ jail term, trials under the Indian Penal Code for offenders and fines up to Rs 50 lakh for death of patients on medical negligence.

The West Bengal Clinical Establishments (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Bill, 2017, tabled by parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee, was passed by voice vote, with the government rejecting the opposition demand that it be sent to the standing committee for scrutiny. The legislation, according to the state government, aimed at bringing transparency and ending harassment of patients and checking medical negligence in private hospitals and nursing homes, besides also bringing in clinics, dispensaries and polyclinics under its ambit. The bill makes it mandatory for private hospitals to pay compensations in case of medical negligence. Hospitals violating the new law will be liable to pay a fine of Rs 10 lakh or more.

The bill has the provision to set up a 13-member West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission to monitor the activities of private hospitals. The penal measures range between compensation and scrapping the licence of the physician/hospital. The commission may also put the offender behind bars and order trial under IPC.

Meanwhile, a five-member committee formed by the state government to probe the death of Sanjay Roy of Dankuni, following alleged negligence of Apollo Hospital, found the hospital guilty of negligence and also pressuring the family of Roy for paying money to the hospital that was not due to it—all strengthening state’s case against private hospitals.

While most private hospitals prefer being tightlipped, senior officials of at least two leading hospitals said the antagonistic stance of the state government might force these hospitals to pull out of the state. As an immediate fallout of this move, some private hospitals and nursing homes are learnt to have stopped admitting critical patients, forget about operating on them, to avoid unnecessary harassment or vandalism by angry mobs or arrest by authorities, in case something goes wrong.

Political observers feel that it will now be Mamata’s litmus test to let these private hospitals, and particularly the doctors, to come out of this fear psychosis, while playing by the rule book.

ritwikmukherjee@mydigitalfc.com