West Bengal: Private hospitals under Govt scrutiny for list of patients treated for free

Kolkata: Private hospitals in West Bengal which received land or other facilities from the state government have now come under scrutiny after the latter wrote a letter to various private hospitals asking them to submit a list of patients to whom they have given free treatment which is mandatory under the West Bengal Clinical Establishments (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Rules 2017.

According to the Rules, the hospitals which received land or other facilities from government are required to provide free treatment to 10 percent of indoor and 20 percent of OPD patients.

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The letter, which was sent to more than 15 hospitals in the state, observes, "In accordance with the Rule 20(b) of the West Bengal Clinical Establishments (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Rules 2017: The clinical establishments which have received land or other facilities from the government during initiation and in the course of the continuance of their projects shall be responsible to provide free treatment to 20% of the Outdoor Patient Department (OPD) patients and 10% of the Indoor Patient Department (IPD) patients calculated by the numbers of patients and the amount involved whichever is higher, who belong to the economically weaker sections, the detailed modalities in this regard may determined by the Commission (regulatory commission for private healthcare facilities) in due course of time."

It pointed out that the private hospitals were already informed about this on December 14, 2020. The letter said, "You are once again instructed to submit a list of patients treated in your clinical establishment as “completely free” treatment (20% of OPD and 10% of IPD patients), along with the supporting details."

The government directed the hospitals to treat it as an urgent matter and respond immediately.

Speaking to Telegraph India, a senior official of the state health department said, "There is the clause in the rule and also mentioned in the licence of the hospitals which had taken land from the government to provide treatment free of cost to a section of patients. We want to know whether these hospitals are actually following the clause." An official added that a number of private hospitals in Kolkata have taken land on lease at subsidised rates.

The health department observed that this is the only way to put pressure on private hospitals to provide free treatment to patients or stop them from taking facilities from the government.

As per reports, one private hospital has responded that they have not received any facility from the government due to which the clause is not applicable to them. Peeless hospital stated that the clause could not be applied to them because they did not take the land from the government. Sudipta Mitra, chief executive of Peerless Hospital said, "We have replied to the health department that the land on which our hospital has been built was not taken from the state government. So, the clause to treat a percentage of patients for free is not applicable to us." He added, "However, we treat some patients for free."

The AMRI Hospitals’ Dhakuria unit would have to abide by the rules since the government have a stake in that hospital. Rupak Barua, group CEO, AMRI , said, "The state government’s share in the hospital, initially 26 per cent, has come down to 1.9 per cent. There are some clauses in the agreement which we follow. This includes treating some patients from the economically weaker section on discounted rates."

Commenting on this clause, an official from one private hospital stated that these clauses were created when there were not many state government beneficiary schemes. The official said, "Now, we have Swasthya Sathi and West Bengal health scheme for which we have to treat patients at highly subsidised rates," adding, "So, treating 10 per cent of the IPD and 20 per cent of OPD patients for free would not be viable."

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