Govt expert panel on hospitals to soon present recommendations

New Delhi: An expert committee set up by the Delhi government will soon present its recommendations on the norms to be followed by city hospitals, including in medical investigation and for behavioural protocols, a member said.

The nine-member panel was set up on December 13 and is headed by the Director-General Of Health Services, Kirti Bhushan.

"Very soon we should be able to come up with our recommendations. A large part of the work is over as we have analysed the data on hospitals and nursing homes," the member told PTI on condition of anonymity.

"We have had one meeting, and soon we will have out next meeting, after which we should be able to arrive at the final recommendations."

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had said that the committee has been requested to submit its recommendations by December 31.

"I think we should be able to present it by that stipulated time," the member said.

She also said a few norms recommended will apply to both government and private hospitals in the city, while others will be only for private entities.

On December 13, Jain, while announcing the constitution of the panel, had said that it would also recommend the Delhi government the norms to be followed by private hospitals in the city, including on capping the margin of profit from the sale of medicines.

"They will not be mere recommendations. The Delhi government will use them to come up with protocols related to medical services," Jain had said.

Asked if the step was prompted by the recent alleged incidents of overcharging and medical negligence by two upscale private hospitals, he had said: "No. We have been pro- actively working on it for months."

On what prompted the setting up of the panel, Jain had said his department had received several complaints related to alleged overcharging, refusal or delay in providing immediate medical care to victims of crime or road accidents, or hospitals compelling patients to purchase drugs from in-house pharmacy, rude behaviour by healthcare workers and delay in initiating medico-legal cases.

The members on the panel include Indian Medical Association president Dr K K Aggarwal, Delhi Medical Council president Dr Arun Gupta, former president of Delhi Medical Association, Dr R K Gupta, and experts from the government.

They will offer suggestions that will seek to "develop a mechanism for eradicating cuts and commissions in medical practice", the government said.