Act against private hospital, EWS panel tells govt

New Delhi: The economically weaker sections (EWS) beds monitoring committee for hospitals has asked the government to take action against a private hospital in south west Delhi which has not been admitting any patient and operating OPDs for the past four months.

The hospital, Bensups hospital in Dwarka, sector 12, which is run B.R. Dhawan Memorial Charitable Trust (Society), has remained closed for the past four months.

The hospital, which was started to provide medical facilities primarily for the poor and needy, was allotted land by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on small amount  “for the welfare of the public”.

According to the members of the monitoring committee, which was set up by the Delhi high court, they have come to know that the hospital is closed for past more than four months.

“Presently, the hospital is not admitting any patient and not operating any out patient departments —  nearly 10 per cent of hospital beds and 25 per cent of OPD — for needy and underprivileged are out of reach. If I were to calculate this loss in terms of finances, it would come to approximately Rs 2 lakh per day (Rs 7.2 crore per annum),” said Ashok Agarwal, member, EWS beds monitoring committee.

“In my last visit around a year ago, I saw that the hospital is not functioning up to the mark and there are some internal problems going on,” he said.

The Bensups hospital has a capacity of 150 beds and cannot support less than 15 patients from EWS category on a daily basis.

In a letter to lieutenant governor (L-G) Anil Baijal, Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain, and DDA vice-chairman, Mr Agarwal requested the authorities to initiate “stringent action”, including cancellation of allotment, in case, the society is not in a position to run the hospital and provide medical facilities to the public in general and economically weaker section patients in particular.