Karnataka: Reluctant private hospitals to face action

Amid reports that some private hospitals empaneled to deliver medical care to Covid-19 patients are shirking their obligations, the state government has issued a notification threatening such establishments with strict punishment under sections of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the KPME Act and the Indian Penal Code.

Practitioners at various private hospitals were critical of the notification, saying such threats will further demoralise medical staff grappling with the challenge of treating virus patients.

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Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar announced that government officials had been made aware that some private medical establishments were “denying/refusing/avoiding patients with Covid-19 and Covid-19-like symptoms contrary to” Section 11 and 11A of the Karnataka Private Medical Establishment Act, 2017.

The sections lay down that every private medical establishment shall “actively participate in the implementation of all national and state health programmes in such manner as the state government may specify from time to time; and furnish periodical reports thereon to the authorities concerned, perform statutory duties in respect of communicable diseases to prevent the spread of the disease to other persons and report the same to public health authorities immediately. They also demand adherence to the patient’s charter.

“The non-compliance to this order will attract punishment under the relevant sections of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the KPME Act and the Indian Penal Code,” the notification warned.

Dr Rajeeva Mogera, the consultant physician at Apollo Hospitals, said having neglected the central task of medical infrastructure building during the lockdown, the government’s threats of punitive punishment will further demoralise medical staff grappling with the challenge of treating Covid-19 patients.

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“Healthcare professionals are scared of contracting the disease and passing it on to their families. To threaten medical staff is not something that motivates them,” he said.

He also pointed out that the situation is not as simple as merely following orders to start Covid care, citing grave manpower shortages.

It was a statement echoed by Dr A C Ashok, Principal, Dr Chandramma Dayanad Sagar Institute of Medical Education on Kanakapura Main Road, where a number of Group D workers and other contractual staff, plus 30 nurses, quit the job after the hospital came under orders to start Covid-19 medical services.

“I don’t see what good threatening anybody will do. Medical staff are not army troops trained to face the threat of impending death. A better way to motivate them would be to point out that they provide a valuable service to the country,” he said.

“People would much rather face jail than die or cause the death of a loved one,” he added.