Telangana not using guillotine power against errant hospitals: HC

HYDERABAD: Wondering whether the state was adopting a discriminatory approach against errant private hospitals by punishing small health facilities and letting corporate ones go scot-free, the high court on Thursday directed the state to furnish within two weeks action it took against Yashoda Hospitals (Somajiguda & Secunderabad; 33 complaints), Kims Hospital (13) Sunshine Hospitals and Care Hospitals (10 each).
A bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy gave this direction while hearing a batch of PILs that sought better management of Covid-19 pandemic in the state. The bench went through the affidavit filed by state public health and family welfare director Dr G Srinivas Rao and said the contents were grossly inadequate and were giving an incomplete picture of the state effort. It removed Covid treatment permission for two hospitals, which had less number of complaints against them.

“We do not know whether the state is doing this shoddy job purposefully,” the bench said. Dr Srinivas Rao, who was present before the court, said they received 276 complaints against private hospitals and, of this, they had resolved 154 complaints and 122 were still pending. His affidavit was silent on the kind of resolution made and was clueless on how and when they would resolve the remaining 122 complaints.
Pointing out a fleecing method mentioned in the state’s affidavit itself, Pujitha Gorantla, counsel for one of the petitioners, told the court how one private hospital had demanded Rs 12 lakh from a patient and took Rs 5 lakh as advance.
The bench said these were exorbitant rates and the state was not doing its job properly though it was authorised by the Centre to act against the errant hospitals, the bench said and asked the counsel to file an affidavit signed by the aggrieved patient or his kin. “That will be useful for us to set the process in motion,” the bench said, expressing disapproval over the replies of the health director. “We heard of instances where the hospitals were insisting on payment of huge charges even after failing to save the lives of the patients,” the bench warned.