Abhinav Garg, Durgesh
Nandan Jha | TNN | Mar 14, 2019
NEW DELHI: Why shouldn’t
hospitals have a separate account to receive donations under Corporate Social
Responsibility, Delhi high court sought to know on Wednesday.
Taking suo motu cognisance of
a letter sent by former Indian Medical Association (IMA) president Dr KK
Aggarwal, a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice A J Bhambhani
asked the Centre and the AAP government why the court’s 2014 guidelines in this
regard were still lying in cold storage.
In its judgment, HC had then
advised the government to ensure its hospitals had a separate account to
receive donations under CSR from companies or from charitable entities.
Converting the letter into a PIL, the bench issued a notice to the Union
ministry of health and Delhi government’s health department seeking their
responses.
Dr Aggarwal, president of NGO
Heart Care Foundation of India, complained to HC in the letter that neither the
Centre nor Delhi government had implemented the suggestions given by the court
in 2014.
Pointing out that CSR
initiatives, in which corporates can contribute to welfare of society either
financially or through their products and services free of cost, should be
welcomed by hospitals, HC had also suggested that all hospitals should have a
designated officer to whom applications for assistance can be made by patients
in need.
“Government hospitals could
put up a list on the health department website of the drugs, implants and
devices they require for EWS or BPL patients. This way, people would donate as
per the needs of each hospital. This could be revised monthly. The state government
may put up a list of drugs, implants and devices excluded from its budget for
which donations would be welcome,” read HC’s suggestions.
The suggestions had come in
HC’s judgment directing Delhi government to provide enzyme replacement therapy
(ERT) free of cost at AIIMS to a poor minor boy suffering from a rare genetic
disorder whenever he needed it.
At present, government
hospitals provide financial aid to the poor from relief funds of the President,
PM and CM, and funds from health ministry and private trusts, in addition to
discretionary grants. But that is not enough, said doctors.
In 2016, AIIMS had started a
unique programme — Adopt a Patient — to fill the gap between demand and supply
in donations for patients. But the programme was discontinued later. “We admit
about two lakh patients every year at AIIMS. Of these, 30-40% are poor and
cannot pay for implants. In case of spinal injury, there have been cases where
the families have abandoned patients due to lack of means to continue treatment
or rehabilitate the patient at home,” the doctors had said.
(Source: TOI)
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