Private hospitals must play a more constructive role: Nirmal

Kolkata: Nirmal Ghosh, the chief whip of Trinamool Congress in the Assembly, urged private hospitals to play a more constructive role, to extend health services in the far-off districts.

Ghosh was talking to reporters after laying the foundation stone of Shree Ramkrishna Hospital, a proposed multi-superspeciality hospital at Barasat, administrative headquarter of North 24-Parganas on Sunday.

He said that private hospitals should not think from the business point of view and must cooperate with the state government to provide better health care services to the people, particularly in the rural areas.

"With the number of patients going up in the state, the private hospitals must stand beside the state government in order to provide better health care services to the patients. Private hospitals must ensure that they do not over-charge the patients. They must also keep in mind that the patients visiting the private establishments should get adequate health services at cheaper rate," Ghosh said.

He once again reminded that private hospitals must not be used as a commercial entity to earn money from people and that they have some social obligations too.

"If the private establishments take a pledge that they would provide health care services to the patients at a minimum possible price, it would further boost the health infrastructure in the state," he said.

Debabrata Pal, a representative of Shree Ramkrishna Hospital, said that the hospital would come up within 18 months and best quality treatment would be provided to the patients.