New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare over a Public Interest Litigation(PIL) that seeks to set up a mechanism to see if the private hospitals overcharged Covid-19 patients to make profits over the health of people.
"The issue, which has been raised in the petition, concerns of wide strata of society consisting of patients and their relatives who have been overcharged during the Covid-19 pandemic and the issue which has been raised would merit serious attention," observed the court.
"Issue notice to the Union of India for the present, returnable in four weeks," ordered the court.
The PIL has sought directions from the state and the Centre to look into the complaints of people who are complaining about their treatment costs.
The bench comprising Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice B.V. Nagaratha sought the Centre's response over a plea filed by Abhinav Thappar who contended that there was a widespread complaint of hospitals overcharging the patients during the epidemic. Patients had to go to private hospitals as a result of the inadequacy of public health infrastructure and that was exploited by the private players who charged them with exorbitant amounts of money.
The petitioner also highlighted that there are several instances where local bodies such as Pune Municipal Corporation has issued notice to the private hospitals for overcharging the patients and ensured refund of excess amounts charged.
However, the plea added, there is no "uniform policy and guidelines till date regarding the refund of exorbitant amount overcharged from patients either at the state level and Covid-19 patients and their families are left at the mercy of private hospitals, which have been exploiting the global pandemic".
Separately, during a hearing regarding vaccines the bench also led by D.Y. Chandrachud had expressed its apprehensions over private hospitals charging more for vaccination. The court had observed that though private hospitals also provide public health they have a profit motive and therefore need to be regulated.
