Delhi Govt Urged to Enforce New Act to Regulate Errant Hospitals

New Delhi: The action taken against Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, and Fortis Memorial Research Institute in Gurugram has pleased some in the union health ministry, as it signals a warning for other private hospitals.

Health secretary Preeti Sudan on Saturday evening stressed on the importance of Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010 - a model act enacted by the Centre to regulate private medical facilities. It has to be adopted and legislated by states and union territories.

Sudan spoke of the 16 states and UTs that have adopted the Act, a day after union health minister JP Nadda wrote to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, urging him to adopt it in Delhi “for effective regulation of clinical establishments” to prevent recurrence of “such unsavoury incidents in the interest of patients”.

“Alternatively”, read the letter, “you may even consider bringing a state-specific legislation in the matter, if adoption of the act is not found suitable.” Some government officials feel the Centre-state cooperation has been quick in these two cases.

Soon after the Delhi government cancelled Max’s Shalimar Bagh branch license for wrongly declaring a newborn dead, the Haryana government wrote to the state urban authority seeking the cancellation of Gurgaon Fortis' land lease for overbilling the parents of a seven-year-old girl, who died of dengue.

Officials said if the act is enacted, they could reach out to state governments to pull up errant hospitals in a short span of time. The furious reaction that followed the two cases brought the issue of unethical practices by private hospitals into focus.