Delhi Govt to Regulate Private Hospitals, Constitutes Expert Panel to Create Mechanisms

New Delhi: Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain on Wednesday formed a nine-member expert panel to examine the functioning of private hospitals in the Capital city.

The step comes after the Delhi government cancelled the licence of Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, for wrongly declaring dead a newborn baby who was later found to be alive and for not giving EWS patients mandated number of beds.

The panel has been formed two days after the Indian Medical Association (IMA) brought out a series of recommendations to check unethical practices in healthcare sector. Jain said the Delhi government has been talking to the IMA, the Delhi Medical Association and the Delhi Medical Council among others, in a "series of meetings" to form this panel.

He noted that several complaints against hospitals/nursing homes, regarding overcharging, refusal to or delay in providing medical care to victims of crimes or road accidents, rude behaviour on the part of the staff and compelling patients to buy drugs from in house pharmacies, have been brought to his notice.

The panel has been charged with creating a set of protocols, by December 31, to curb these illegal practices. It comprises Delhi's Director General of Health Services (DGHS) Dr. Kirti Bhushan, IMA president Dr. KK Aggarwal, former DMA president Dr. RK Gupta and current DMC president Dr. Arun Gupta among others.

"Some of the mechanisms this panel has been asked to prepare are based on the IMA's recommendations that it brought out on December 11. For example, all private hospitals/nursing homes should prescribe drugs mentioned in National List of Essential Medicines (NELM)," said Jain.

The panel will have to figure out how private nursing homes and hospitals should only charge prices for medicines and consumables and not compel patients to buy drugs from in-house pharmacy, and to regulate the prices for various types of diagnostics. Additionally, they've been asked to develop a mechanism to eradicate cuts and commissions in medical practice.