Despite law, no end to fleecing of patients

Naveen S Garewal

When the Haryana Government announced the introduction of a legal mechanism to monitor hospitals and clinics, the medical fraternity made a lot of commotion. However, people were happy as the proposal gave them hope that medical establishments would become different from other businesses. Public outrage over private hospitals fleecing patients was strong; famous hospital Fortis had been in the news for wrong reasons. The Haryana Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Adoption Bill was passed in the Budget session this year.

However, several months hence the legislation remains only on paper. The Health Minister, who had sworn to set erring medical practitioners right, has perhaps been forced to take things easy. Strikes and protests by doctors apparently forced the government to soften its stance. After showing undue haste in adopting a Central legislation at the beginning of the year, Haryana subsequently passed its own law in March. But the government is yet to frame rules for the diluted legislation that initially proposed to convert every hospital and clinic to hospitals of 50 beds or more.

What baffling is that Haryana adopted a new law when a similar law was already there? In 2014, the previous Congress government had passed the Haryana Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Bill 2014 that stated its objective as, “There is a general perception that the current regulatory process for health care is inadequate or is not responsive enough to ensure acceptable quality of health services and preventive negligence in health care”. 

Where was the need for a second law when one already existed?, asks High Court lawyer Hemant Kumar. In January, most affiliates of the Indian Medical Association launched protests against the legislation that proposed close monitoring of doctors and private health centres. The new law mandated adequate staff on duty to ensure patients are not left unattended at anytime, and infrastructure to ensure they have access to facilities and the prevailing technology. Doctors saw it as a major intrusion into their domain by the government, leading to a lot of din. Subsequent to the meetings between doctors and the government, the law was diluted and small and medium health care providers were excluded. But since the entire exercise has been put into cold storage and the government has not framed rules, it is apparent that doctors had their way and people would continue to suffer.

Whether it was the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010, enacted by Parliament and adopted by Haryana or the Haryana Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Bill 2014 or now the Haryana Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Adoption Bill, 2018 — all gave big hope to patients. But most people would be feeling cheated at the laxity of the government in framing rules. 

The latest Act is applicable to clinical establishments, which have over 50 beds. The Act of 2018 had received the assent of the Governor but is still to be formally enforced; it was to be effective from January 25. Moreover, even the title of the latest Act is a misnomer, as it seems that Haryana is adopting the 2014 law. With little application of mind, the law could have been titled as Clinical Establishments (Haryana Adoption) Act, 2018. At the same time, the 2014 law should have been repealed.

The government needs to show its seriousness in providing protection to people from whimsical health care providers.