Pune hospital disallowed from using funds meant for the weaker section

In a setback for Pune's Grant Medical Foundation Ruby Hall Clinic, the Bombay High Court has restrained the hospital from using the funds meant for the weaker section of the society to pay the salaries of its staff and other expenses. The HC said that the hospital must instead use its fixed deposit for the expenses, since it is currently reeling under a financial crisis. A bench of Justice Shahrukh Kathawalla, however, clarified that the funds meant for the weaker section can be used only to treat citizens suffering from COVID-19, who hail from the lower strata of the society. The bench was dealing with a plea filed by the Ruby Hall Clinic, a public charitable hospital, seeking permission to use Rs 3 crore it has in its account meant for the weaker section and the Indigent Patients Fund (IPF). Notably, ever y charitable hospital under the Bombay Public Trusts Act, has to comply with the scheme, which mandates reservation of 10 per cent of the total beds for the patients belonging to the IPF and weaker section categories. As per the scheme, the hospital has to use 2 per cent of the total billing amount of ever y patient towards the IPF or weaker section fund, which could be used to treat only the patients from these two categories.

During the course of the hearing, Justice Kathawalla noted that the hospital did not spell out in its affidavit the exact sources of income and also its expenses in detail. The bench further took a note of the fact that the hospital did not initially reveal its fixed deposits in various banks, which are to the tune of over Rs 68 crores. "The urgent relief sought to use the amount lying in the ‘Indigent Patients Fund’ is rejected. Needless to add that the trust is always free to use this amount to treat the indigent patients suffering from COVID-19 and from any other sickness," Justice Kathawalla held.