Penalise hospitals who detain patients for non-payment of bills: High Court
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Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has asked Maharashtra government to develop a mechanism within a month which would enable the state to take action against hospitals and doctors who detain patients and hold up bodies for non-payment of medical bills.
"Whenever a case of illegal detention comes up, the criminal law is set into motion. Therefore a mechanism needs to be set up which would enable the state to take action on the basis of complaints filed by patients and their family members," a bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka said yesterday while hearing a PIL.
The bench, which was hearing a plea dealing with detention of patients due to non-payment of bills, also asked the government to have a dialogue with hospitals and medical consultants to find out ways to avoid such issues.
The PIL said that there were many instances where due to non-payment of bills the patients were detained or bodies not handed over to the families.
Amicus Curiae (friend of the court) Madhav Thorat argued that there should be a regulation to deal with this issue without which the high court cannot issue a writ of mandamus or direction in this matter.
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