Delhi hospitals, to display vacant bed count at entry

NEW DELHI: All major hospitals, clinics and nursing homes in Delhi will have to display the number of available beds, and room charges at their entry gates on a real-time basis from now on, the Lieutenant Governor’s office said on Wednesday.

In a directive issued to chief secretary Vijay Dev on Wednesday, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal also asked him to deploy officials to conduct random inspections across all hospitals to check malpractices such as overcharging or false refusal of beds.

The L-G is the chairperson of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is its vice-chairperson. The order read, “In order to increase transparency and to facilitate the public, all major hospitals, clinics and nursing homes of Delhi should be directed to display on LED boards in large letters outside their establishments, at the entry point itself, the availability of beds (both Covid and non-Covid, wherever applicable), along with charges including for rooms/beds and details of the contact person for admission.” Baijal also asked the Delhi health department to ensure the data displayed on the boards is reconciled with data on the Delhi Corona app and delhifightscorona.in web portal.

“Further, periodic surprise checks may also be conducted by the officers deputed by the DDMA to ensure that correct data is displayed by hospitals/clinics/ nursing homes concerned and no eligible/genuine patient is denied admission or is overcharged,” Baijal’s order further read.

The L-G’s order will stand alongside a similar order issued by the state health department on Tuesday, in which the Delhi government had asked all hospitals with 50 beds or more to put up a 12x10-feet flexboard at the entry gate.