Mamata pulls up private hospitals for ‘unethical money-making’

Kolkata, Feb 22 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday pulled up city-based private hospitals for "unethical" money-making practices and announced the formation of a regulatory commission to monitor their activities.

The Trinamool Congress supremo berated hospital managements for excess billing and medical negligence and called upon them to show a "humane" side.

Banerjee met the top brass of private hospitals (that have 100-plus bed capacity) at Town Hall with a roster of grievances of the public against them, including turning away emergency patients.

"We are setting up a West Bengal Health Regulatory Commission headed by an ex-chief justice or judge and experts. It will have representation of the public, the physicians and the hospitals as well. There will comprehensive monitoring from billing to performance," she said.

The Commission will submit a report every month.

She also said the West Bengal Clinical Act will be amended and will be made stronger.

While admonishing the hospital authorities, Banerjee advised citizens to refrain from taking law into their own hands, referring to the vandalism at CMRI hospital where relatives of a patient and locals ransacked the hospital accusing it of wrong treatment and demanding money without taking care of critical patients.

The incident triggered the meeting where all senior Bengal health services officials
were present.

"I appeal to the public to not take law into their own hands. One (doctor) can make a mistake but that does not make everybody a culprit," she said, requesting physicians to stand by the kin of the deceased and display empathy.

Banerjee also informed the hospital officials that a survey had been carried out recently following which as many as 70 hospitals were slapped showcause notices.

"Out of 2088 healthcare facilities, we have surveyed 942 places and 70 have been showcaused. Thirty-three licenses have been cancelled. We had been getting complaints for a long time and it's not that we didn't do anything," she said.

She vowed to clamp down on "unethical" practices.

"There is absence of cleanliness and coordination. There is excess billing and some patients are being admitted to ICUs or put on ventilator when these options are not required in their cases.

"Doctors are forcing patients to go for expensive tests and treatments for small issues. Doctors are not to be blamed. They are being forced to bend to the will of hospital authorities and go for pricier treatment for commissions," a stern Banerjee said.

"I will not allow private hospitals to extort money from patients. Have you ever thought how a poor man will pay bills in lakhs (of rupees)? Some people have to sell away every thing to get access to the dead body of a relative. I have reports on unethical practices being carried out at hospitals," she said.

Banerjee also put forth peeves by foreign patients who complain about absence of beds and high treatment cost.

"There are patients in Bengal from Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan as well as north-eastern states and Odisha. We have to be humane. Let's be frank, we should aim for convenience of the people.

"If you feel that you need 100 per cent profit rather than 20 per cent, then it becomes a factory," she said.

She individually questioned the hospital officials and gave a patient hearing to their responses.

Banerjee recommended e-prescriptions and e-records to be made compulsory.

Opening up fair price diagnostics and medicine facilities and budget sections were also discussed.

Child trafficking and organ donation rackets also figured on the agenda.

Prominent establishments like Apollo Gleneagles and Belle View were on her radar for excess billing.

Taking stock of the functioning of these hospitals, Banerjee stressed on affordable healthcare, simplicity of service, transparency in action and offering services with a smile, noting it is the prerogative of the patient to choose either state-run or private healthcare services.

She said "27,000 beds have been increased in the government hospitals in the last few years. Four lakh people have been registered under the Swastha Sathi programme and government hospitals have also started e-prescriptions. Wherever necessary we give free services, but the state government can't offer all facilities and that is why private hospitals are needed."

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)