West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday named senior Calcutta High Court judge Asim Kumar Roy as chairman of the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission.
The Principal Secretary of the State’s Consumer Affairs Department, Anil Verma, will be vice-chairman of the 13-member body that will look into allegations of irregularities against private health facilities in the State.
Interim chief
“Justice Roy will be retiring in five months’ time. If he says he will join after retiring, then we have no problem. Verma will be in-charge till then,” the Chief Minister said.
The Commission, provisions for which were made in The West Bengal Clinical Establishments (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Bill, 2017, passed earlier this month, will have 11 members. As for the Commission members, the Chief Minster said it would include renowned doctors, a nurses’ representative, the director of medical education, a nominee from the State’s health department, representatives from the police and private health establishment.
The Chief Minister emphasised that no politician has been inducted into the body that will have the powers of a civil court.
‘Blackmailing tactics’
Asked if such measures are not leading private hospitals to close shop, Ms. Banerjee said: “There are 2,000 private health facilities. But there are complaints against only seven or eight of them. Should we succumb to such blackmailing tactics?”
“All kinds of business are not the same. Hospital business is not like promoting real estate,” she added.
Expressing hope that other State governments will also take similar steps to put a check on private hospitals, she claimed that many doctors were supporting the initiative.
