Private Hospitals build on land granted by the government will be made to fulfil their commitments towards public healthcare.

By: Ashwin Mb

There are three elements for this commitment to be fulfilled:

• Strong Monitoring Mechanisms: In this direction, the Delhi government has instituted an Management Information System (MIS) to track the bed availability for EWS patients in real time, it is difficult to verify whether the MIS instituted by Delhi Government reflects the accurate information. 
• Robust Grievance Redressal System: The health department website has no grievance redressal mechanism displayed on its website nor any helpline number in case of the non-compliance of this policy, Additionally, the policy guidelines reflect no steps and procedure to be followed in case of violation.
• Strict Action Against Defaulter: Delhi Govt has fined five hospitals for Rs. 600 crore for refusing to treat the poor. Private hospitals in Delhi who were allotted land at concessional rates are supposed to keep 10% of their in-patient department capacity and 25 per cent of out-patient department capacity to treat economically weaker sections (EWS) patients free of cost.

Since the government has no robust grievance redressal system yet, the performance cannot be classified as “Fulfilled”. However, MIS and the penalty on the hospitals are good progress and hence the performance has been classified as “Adequate Progress”