SC wants private hospitals built on subsidised land to treat poor for free

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has said private hospitals in Delhi operating on subsidised government land must provide free treatment to the poor, or face shutdown.

These hospitals had been given land at concessional rates with a condition in the lease deed that they would provide free treatment to patients from the economically-weaker sections of society. This is to the extent of 25% of their OPD patients and 10% of their in-patients.

The Delhi high court had earlier ruled against private hospitals, acting on a public interest litigation filed by Social Jurist, a notfor-profit organisation.


Following this, hospitals including Moolchand, St Stephen’s and Sitaram Bhartia had appealed to SC.

Upholding the high court order, a bench comprising justice Arun Misra and justice Abdul Nazeer asked the Delhi government to provide periodic reports on compliance with its order and said hospitals that resist will lose their licence. A detailed judgement on the issue is still awaited.

Most hospitals claim that treatments are too costly to be provided free, especially drugs, lab tests and surgical procedures. They had instead offered to provide consultancy services free of charge.