Hurling a volley of allegations against private health facilities in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday announced that two Bills will be brought up in the State Assembly to monitor their functioning.
In the Assembly Session beginning March 1, The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Amendment Act, 2017 and another legislation for setting up a West Bengal Health Regulatory Commission will be tabled in the House, said Ms. Banerjee, who is also the Health Minister.
Headed by retired judge
The panel will be headed by a retired judge, and its members will include officials from the government, and representatives from private hospitals as well as the civil society.
The decision was taken after an hour-long meeting between Ms. Banerjee and representatives of top private hospitals and nursing homes.
The meeting was broadcast live on television and Ms. Banerjee didn't pull any punches as she attacked almost all aspects of services provided by the institutions.
Ms. Banerjee said she was "displeased" with the performance of many high-end private hospitals.
“Inflated bills”
She also accused Apollo Hospitals of coming up with "inflated bills". “Why don’t you do a budget hospital?” Ms. Banerjee asked Apollo Hospitals representative Rana Dasgupta, who was present at the meeting.
Pradeep Tandon of the Belle Vue Clinic was told about the “deterioration in service” of the hospital.
Mob attack
While Ms. Banerjee condemned the recent attack on Calcutta Medical Research Institute by a mob alleging medical negligence last week, she told the representative of CMRI that "bills (of the hospital) are on the rise”.
The more uncomfortable questions were in store for the representative of MedicaSuperspeciality Hospital who was asked to explain allegations of a “kidney” racket operating out of the hospital.
