Charity chief directs hospitals to prioritise patients over deposit

City’s charitable hospitals will now have to face action if they don’t treat patients in case they are unable to pay the deposit amount. The assistant charity commissioner has written to all the hospitals registered with the charity commissioner’s office.

Assistant charity commissioner Navnath Jagtap has written to all 56 charitable hospitals on Tuesday located across Pune district. The charity commissioner looks over the high court’s scheme under which patients from the deprived class are treated free of cost or at subsidised rate by the charitable hospitals. This is for the first time that the commissioner will look into the issue where the patients are denied treatment for non-payment of deposits.

Jagtap informed, “We have issued the letter on Tuesday to all the charitable hospitals registered with us. Any patient coming to the hospital should be given treatment. If there is any loss of life due to the delay in treating the patient over deposit money, action will be taken against the hospital.”

The decision comes after the deputy director of health services (Pune circle) wrote to the charity commissioner and the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) health department. The director issued the letter after several complaints regarding private facilities stressing on deposits surfaced.

Some hospitals however stated that patients are never denied treatment over this issue.

Dr Rhea Punjabi, medical superintendent at Inlaks and Budhrani Hospital, shared, “According to our hospital policy, every patient is given priority. If the patients don’t have the deposit money, we admit and treat them and take an undertaking. The deposit money is not important, but the amount is needed only to run the institute. Life is always more significant and thus we take patients at zero deposits.”

Sachin Dandwate, manager at Ruby Hall Clinic, explained, “We don’t deny treatment if the patient is unable to submit the deposit amount. There have been instances earlier when the patient has fled after treatment without paying the bill. But, according to the hospital policy, we treat the patients in emergency cases on humanitarian grounds.”