No Covid beds: Cases against four Bengaluru private hospitals

BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Thursday initiated criminal proceedings against four private hospitals under the Disaster Management Act for not following government orders on allocation of beds for Covid patients. The BBMP, on September 16, had slapped a final show-cause notice on 36 private hospitals for not reserving 50 per cent of beds for Covid19 patients and not uploading the data on the government website. Of these, action has been taken against four private hospitals including Republic Hospital, Vikram Hospital, Nu and Fortis.

A letter, signed by BBMP Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad, stated, “The reports before me reveal that 50 per cent of beds have not been made available to the government quota and details are not uploaded on the KPME portal. This a violation of the government orders. Since the reply from the hospital is unsatisfactory and violates the orders, criminal prosecution of the hospital in-charge has been initiated under Section 60 Disaster Management Act 2005”. 

The notices have issued to Nagasubramaniam A, the owner of Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta Road, Asma Banu, owner of Nu Hospital, Padmanabhanagar, the owner and in-charge of Vikram Hospital on Miller’s Road, and D R Shashidhar, owner of Republic Hospital, Langford Gardens.

Prasad told TNIE, “This is for the first time that the BBMP had taken such stern action action against hospitals. Criminal cases have been filed against the owners. The hospitals will be shut down when the health department and government cancels the licence. Keeping in mind the interests of the patients, we have taken this decision and not cancelled the licence of the hospitals.”