PMC to appoint a committee to inspect all private hospitals in the city

The Public Health Department in the past had issued show cause notices to several prominent city hospitals—Ruby Hall Clinic, Jehangir Hospital, Healing Hand Clinic, KEM Hospital, Global Hospital and four branches of Sahyadri Hospitals amongst others for violating several norms.

However, the action raised questions over laxity on the part of PMC, which despite being the local body failed to find the lapses at these hospitals.

Hindustan Times in its two news reports titled, ‘Show cause notices issued to 7 private hospitals in Pune (11 Dec) and ‘State health dept issues notice to four private hospitals for lapses (31 Dec)’ reported about the laxities at the city hospitals exposed during inspections. All these hospitals were allegedly found violating several norms of Maharashtra Nursing Home Registration Act 1949 and Regulations 2021, Bio-Medical Waste Disposal Rules 2016, Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act 2021, Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021, and Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994. Following HT reports the PMC decided to form a committee to inspect all private hospitals in the city.

Dr Bhagwan Pawar, health officer of PMC, said, a committee will be established and headed by the deputy health officer appointed in a couple of weeks.

“The committee will inspect all private hospitals in the city to check their compliance with rules governing the healthcare facilities. The ward medical officers inspect every hospital once in six months. However, we don’t know how the public health department found the lapses which the PMC officials failed to identify,” he said.

Dr Pawar said the hospitals which have already received notices will be given priority to see if they have made necessary changes after the instruction.

The PMC has 899 private hospitals and clinics registered under the Maharashtra Nursing Home Registration Act 1949. The Public Health Department also inspected the hospitals for compliance with various regulations, such as infection control, structural audit, fire NOC, MPCB, etc. The inspections were conducted following complaints from citizens and patients in the past.

Dr Radhakishan Pawar, deputy director of health services, Pune region, said, all these hospitals which were issued notices have submitted their reply and claim to have made the required changes.

“We will revisit these hospitals to check if they have taken the notices seriously. Failure to which, stern action will be taken against them. The action is not yet completed, and the third phase of inspection will start soon. The aim of the drive is that the patients should get quality healthcare and there has to be accountability on the part of the hospitals,” he said.