Will adopt central law to rein in errant private hospitals: Director of public health to Telangana HC

HYDERABAD: Responding over the state’s claims to rein in private hospitals from fleecing patients, state director of public health (DPH) Dr G Srinivas Rao on Wednesday conceded before the high court that the existing law on private hospitals did not have enough teeth to deal with errant players.
“The current law, the Telangana Allopathic Private Medical Care Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2002, does not allow us to impose penalties beyond Rs 20,000 on any errant private medical care facility,” he said, responding to a query from a bench of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, on capping charges at private hospitals.
The bench, while resuming the hearing in Covid-19 batch cases, sought to know from the state the status of its assurance on reining in private hospitals, whose notoriety for exploitation of people knew no bounds during the second wave of Covid-19.
The director of public health, who logged into the virtual court, however, assured the court that they would improve the situation by adopting the central law on clinical establishments that gives them more powers to penalise private hospitals. “If that comes in, we will also start imposing prohibitively high penalties that are equivalent to ten to twenty times of the excess charges they collected from the crisis-struck patients and their families. We studied the Kerala model and we will also implement the same stringent regime after bringing in the central law,” he said.
“The current Act is stopping me from imposing penalties beyond Rs 20,000,” he said. He also informed the court about the formation of an expert committee to advise the state on capping charges. The director also gave replies to several questions posed by the bench on vaccinating various sections of people, providing mental health support, among others.
The court also inquired about the earlier promise of strengthening the state health facilities by recruiting 35,000 doctors and health staff. The bench advised the state to regularise those who are working in class four jobs in the health sector.Dr G Srinivas Rao informed the court that the state was thinking on similar lines and that he would inform the court about the state action in his next affidavit.
The case was adjourned to August 11 for further hearing.