Delhi: Notice to Ganga Ram hospital over EWS services
PVT HOSPITALS IN DELHI THAT RECEIVE LAND FROM THE GOVT AT A DISCOUNT NEED TO EARMARK 10% BEDS AND 25% OF O.P. CLINIC FOR
THE POOR
NEW DELHI: The Delhi government’s directorate of health services has served a show cause notice to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on Monday for violating norms related to providing free treatment to the poor, officials in the know of the matter said. Private hospitals in Delhi that received land from the government at a concessional rate are required to earmark 10% of their hospital beds and 25% of their out-patient clinic for providing free treatment to the poor.
Karol Bagh MLA Vishesh Ravi wrote to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), informing them that the hospital was not admitting deserving poor patients despite 95% of the 68 beds earmarked for such patients lying vacant.
The MLA said the hospital created multiple hurdles for the EWS (economically weaker section) patients and merged patients from the hospital’s charitable trust into the EWS category to deny admission and treatment to deserving patients. He also said the government-appointed liaison official at the hospital was not given powers to implement the EWS norms.
“The beds are available at the hospital and the nodal officer is the one responsible for allocating them. Of course, there were some disruptions during Covid-19 -- we gave the beds to anyone who came, irrespective of whether they belonged to the EWS category or not. Any EWS patient with Covid-19 was provided free treatment as per the mandate, but there was a decline in the number of EWS patients who came to us during that time,” said Dr DS Rana, chairperson of the board of management, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
The notice was served for violations of Delhi Nursing Home rules, which govern space, staffing and other facilities at all registered hospitals and nursing homes in the national capital. Most of the hospitals in the city, including Sir Ganga Ram, are currently in the process of renewing their licences, as all licence renewals were suspended during the pandemic and all hospitals being allowed to operate on existing licences.
“The directions of the high court are very clear. If a hospital does not follow the EWS norms, then the management of such a hospital can be taken over by the government...,” said advocate Ashok Agarwal, who has been working to ensure that EWS norms are followed by Delhi hospitals. He is also part of the high-court appointed monitoring committee on this subject.
He said, “Until two or three years ago, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital had an excellent track record of treating EWS patients... Then, things took a turn -- the hospital started treating patients admitted to their economy wards there. They started taking a long time to verify a patient’s EWS status, sending the patient from one doctor to another, and taking a long time to complete the documentation.”