Trust-run top hospitals to add ‘charitable’ to name

MUMBAI: A majority of trust-run hospitals in the city have relented to the charity commissioner’s diktat to add the term ‘charitable’ to their names. The step, said charity commissioner Shivkumar Dige, will help change the perception that the poor cannot access treatment in swanky private hospitals.


Dige had issued the name change circular in the last week of July to the 430 trust-run hospitals across the state, including 76 from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Leading private hospitals from the city expressed displeasure, saying it could affect the footfall of their paying patients. Many argued that it would lead to legal hassles as their bank documents and other papers must be altered.

Sources said in a series of meetings over the past one month, the charity commissioner’s office prevailed upon the hospitals for the change that will create better awareness. “They agreed in a meeting last week. Hospitals in Sangli Sindhudurg and Bhandara have already implemented the change,” said Dige. The state has a total of 8,000-odd charitable beds.

Some of the big charitable hospitals in the city, including Jaslok, Breach Candy, Nanavati, Lilavati, Bhatia, Saifee, Hiranandani and Bombay hospitals, are also major private players in the health sector. The scheme under the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950, mandates that charitable hospitals reserve 10% beds for free treatment and a further 10% beds for discounted treatment. In an audit of 11 such leading hospitals in 2016, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India found seven were wrongly billing poor patients and charging hefty deposits during admission, while most reserved less than the stipulated number of beds for the poor.

“One of the many reasons for the abysmal performance of the scheme is lack of awareness among the beneficiaries. There is nothing to tell them that these hospitals are mandated by law to do charitable work,” said Rahul Kapoor of NGO Nation First, adding that they have dealt with at least 10 cases in the last few months where patients had to run about to get free or subsidised treatment.

Dr P M Bhujang, who heads the Association of Hospitals, confirmed that most hospitals have agreed. A list of hospitals who are yet to come on board could not be accessed.