Thursday, 19 March 2015 – 6:15am IST | Agency: dna | From the print edition
In a major crackdown on charitable hospitals, which have defaulted on providing treatment free or at concessional rates to poor patients as mandated, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said they were moving to revoke the benefits being granted to such institutions.

In a major crackdown on charitable hospitals, which have defaulted on providing treatment free or at concessional rates to poor patients as mandated, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said they were moving to revoke the benefits being granted to such institutions.

This includes seven hospitals in Mumbai such as Holy Family, PD Hinduja, St Elizabeth, Lion Tarachand, Mhaskar Nursing Home and Lotus Eye Hospital and three in Pune. “Action has been suggested against these hospitals for default as per the high court scheme and the government has approved this,” announced Fadnavis.

Fadnavis was speaking on a calling attention motion by Hasan Mushrif (NCP), and others in the state legislative assembly on Wednesday. Mushrif said that despite getting free land, FSI, concessions in water, power, customs duty, octroi and income tax, these charitable hospitals did not give benefits to needy patients. This was echoed by MLAs across party lines, who also accused some hospitals of fleecing patients and indulging in unethical practices.

Fadnavis said that according to the scheme laid down by the Bombay high court, the government could do away with concessions and benefits in case these charitable hospitals defaulted on giving these benefits to patients. He added that there was a proposal to remove these benefits and the recommendation had been accepted by the government and sent to the concerned department. In addition, five hospitals, namely Asha Parekh, Bombay, S.L Raheja, Lilavati and K.J Somaiya will be warned for defaults.