Telangana Health Dept seizes 103 Private Hospitals, issues notice 633

Hyderabad: Taking strict action against illegal health service facilities, the Health Department of Telangana has seized 103 private hospitals and issued notice to 633 hospitals.

Apart from this, among the total number of 2,058 private hospitals that had been inspected in Telangana, the State has imposed fine on 75 hospitals because they failed the inspection tests.

Issuing an order in this regard, the Director of Public Health and Family Welfare stated, "It has been brought to notice that certain hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, consultation rooms, poly clinics, diagnostic centres, physiotherapy units, dental hospitals and clinics in the state are running without registration under the Act."

"It is observed that unqualified doctors, paramedical staff and other essential staff are also working in the above institutions. Further, it is also observed that certain clinical establishments are running without proper infrastructure, essential medical equipment, improper maintenance of sanitation and bio-medical waste management," it further said.

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The order was further quoted stating by India Today, "In view of the above, all the district medical and health officers in the state are instructed to conduct inspections, duly form teams with programme officers and Dy DM and HOS, and take stringent action on the clinical establishments who have not followed the norms as per the Act. Further, all the DM and HOs are also informed that the above inspections to be conducted in a massive manner and complete the task within 10 days and submit a compliance report to this office without fail in the proforma enclosed."

As per the latest media report by The News Minute, hospitals were inspected in all the districts except Medak and Nalgonda. Confirming the Government's decision of inspecting health facilities, the DPH Srinivasa Rao was quoted saying by the daily, "Instances of people performing illegal abortions, treatments, prescribing allopathic medicines, doing minor surgeries and endangering people's lives have been brought to our notice. To streamline all this, we will be inspecting hospitals and checking registrations, qualifications of doctors etc."

While some of the private hospitals were found to have unqualified doctors performing surgeries, several facilities lacked the mandatory registration under the Clinical Establishments Act. Few hospitals were found to be using boards mentioning MBBS doctors, but AYUSH doctors or other practitioners were performing the procedures instead. In some cases, Registered Medical Practitioners who had set up first-aid centres, were providing allopathic treatment and performing minor surgeries and abortions illegally.

Stating that all the private health facilities mandatorily need to register under The Clinical Establishments Act, the DPH also confirmed that 633 hospitals in Telangana have received notice and they have been given two weeks' time for rectifying the issues.