Swasthya Sathi patient denial: State not to renew license of few pvt hosps

KOLKATA: State government will not renew Clinical Establishment licenses of a few private hospitals and nursing homes, which are still denying patients' admission under Swasthya Sathi with a pretext that they do not fall under the purview of the Bengal government's flagship health scheme.

State Health department has already initiated steps against those nursing homes which are not admitting patients under the Swasthya Sathi scheme. Health department a couple of days ago issued notification by virtue of which it can enforce the Clinical Establishment Act 2017, which clearly says that all the private hospitals have to take part in government schemes. Health department is set to take stringent action as some private hospitals are still denying patients despite repeated pleas from the state government. The notification has been published as a precautionary measure to check patient denial.

Sources in the Health department say that all the top private hospitals are admitting patients under the Swasthya Sathi but a section of small scale nursing homes and hospitals in the districts are still avoiding patients, who are seeking admission under the Swasthya Sathi scheme.

Hospitals having over 10 beds will have no option other than treating patients under Swasthya Sathi as per the norms laid down by the Clinical Establishment Act.

Earlier this week, the Health department directed all Swasthya Sathi-empanelled hospitals that documents related to treatment packages availed by patients must bear the signature and stamp of the treating doctors and they must be uploaded on the department's portal after admission and discharge summary as well.

Health officials spotted a few instances of mismatch in packages blocked for a patient and the package advised by the treating doctor.

The names of doctors treating the patient and the name uploaded in the portal were not the same. These discrepancies were noticed mostly in smaller hospitals and nursing homes.

Health officials found that some of these hospitals and nursing homes are admitting patients under a certain package but they are submitting to the department a different package for the same patient. The Health department also found that patients are often admitted under one doctor but they are released by another doctor.

Incidentally, it may be mentioned here that the state government had already spent Rs 3,212.72 crore for the scheme. More than 2.3 crore families have enrolled in the flagship scheme with 2,200 hospitals empanelled.