Punjab: IMA serves legal notice to PWD officials over road access charges

The state government in 2018 issued a notice stating that a medical facility is liable to pay access charges and in a recent notice, authorities have asked the facilities to deposit the access charges for accessing roadside private properties.

The public works department has served notices to many hospitals to pay the pending fee of almost Rs 1 to 1.5 Lakh for "access charge". The doctors pointed out that though petrol pumps, schools, colleges, hotels, and theatres were included in the 2018 notification regarding using the state sideways, there was no mention of hospitals, reports

Times of India.

Dr Paramjit Maan, IMA state president, and Dr S P S Sooch, Director of, the IMA-Hospital and Nursing Home Association have criticized the notice and termed it as illegal, arbitrary, and vexatious.

They further claimed that they were compelled to send legal notice to PWD authorities as their repeated approaches to the MLAs and ministers went to deaf ears. IMA has sent a legal notice demanding the immediate withdrawal of the notification regarding the imposition of "access charges", reports a daily.

Dr Maan and Dr Sooch told The Indian Express, "The imposition of 'access charges' is not only vague but also vexatious, with an undertone of extortion." They further added that Punjab has 13,000 private health facilities, of which many are situated near National Highways and the private hospitals are responsible for providing treatment to a great population; If the authorities continue to demand fee from the hospitals for such illogical reasons, ultimately the hospitals would be forced to charge the patients additionally and the patients would be deprived of an accessible and affordable healthcare services.