Of the 156 nursing homes shut down, Gadchiroli had 11, Ahmednagar 12 and Vasai-Virar 8. One nursing home each was shut down in Pune City and Pune Rural. (File photo)
A year after the state health department identified 6,742 nursing homes not conforming to various regulations, as many as 156 have been shut down. Seven more have been sealed. FIRs have been filed against 40 nursing homes.
The drive was initiated last year after the Bombay High Court took note of an abortion racket in which 26-year-old Swati Jamdade from Mhaisal village in Sangli district died after an illegal surgery to terminate her pregnancy at Bharati hospital, belonging to homoeopath Dr Babasaheb Khidrapure, went wrong.
The HC had directed health authorities to conduct random checks to find out whether nursing homes had proper licences. Dr Archana Patil, Additional Director, state Family Welfare Bureau, said a statewide survey was undertaken between March and May last year. “We issued notices to these nursing homes and till date 6,286 have taken action on the issues raised by the health authorities,” Dr Patil said.
Irregularities pertain to non-compliance of rules under the Bombay Nursing Home Registration (BNHR) Act, Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), Maharashtra Medical Council Act, Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act and Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act.
At least 2,084 nursing homes were found not complying with rules of the MPCB on disposal of bio-medical waste. It is mandatory for a clinic to have an authorisation certificate from the MPCB to be able to generate bio-medical waste. While the Bombay Nursing Home Registration Act requires nursing homes to have qualified medical practitioners, registration with local authorities and renewal every three years, as many as 1,329 were found violating norms.
There were 739 nursing homes found violating rules under both the MPCB and BNHR Act. A total of 536 nursing homes did not maintain a register and records were incomplete. There were 68 nursing homes with bogus doctors while 29 had stocks of medicines well past their expiry. While 43 nursing homes were pulled up for not following rules under the MTP Act, another 56 were given notices for violating sections of the PC-PNDT Act. At least 98 nursing homes did not have qualified staff.
Of the 156 nursing homes shut down, Gadchiroli had 11, Ahmednagar 12 and Vasai-Virar 8. One nursing home each was shut down in Pune City and Pune Rural. Among FIRs filed against nursing homes, at least six were in Nandurbar, four in Chandrapur, five in Mumbai, three in Navi Mumbai and one or two in other districts, health officials said.
Among the main reasons why these clinics/nursing homes had not been registered as per the BNHR Act was change in bio-medical waste regulations in 2016 and fire safety norms set by the state in 2012-13. According to Dr Sanjay Patil, president-elect of the Indian Medical Association, Pune, awareness needs to be stepped up among smaller clinics and dispensaries for registering with the MPCB and availing an authorisation certificate to be able to generate bio-medical waste. He said in Pune City itself from among the 15,000-odd dispensaries, a majority did not have an authorisation certificate from the MPCB.