Health Department to launch crackdown on brokers in hospitals: Odisha govt to HC

CUTTACK:  The state government has informed the Orissa High Court that it has started taking measures to curb the menace of agents/brokers on the premises of public health facilities.

In an affidavit, commissioner-cum-secretary Health & Family Welfare Department Shalini Pandit has submitted that instructions have been issued to key officials of the district administration to regulate the activities of agents/brokers who are engaged to pressurise or influence poor patients to go to the private hospital for their health care.

On June 21, the court had taken note of the allegations that agents deployed by the private hospitals are alluring the people and, in some cases, the patients are pressured to get admitted in them instead of the government health facilities.

“The Government should come up with a regulation to stop entry of such persons, in order to stop such activities as alleged. We direct the State to file an affidavit in which the Government shall also spell out whether they are in a position to enact such regulation,” the court had ordered.

The allegations were made in a PIL filed by Chittaranjan Mohanty, a high court lawyer. The court directed the state government to file the affidavit before the matter is taken up next on July 27. In the affidavit, Pandit said, the district collectors and superintendents of police have been entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring health facilities at different levels.

“Further instructions for strict monitoring and necessary crackdown on brokers indulged in diverting patients to private clinics and hospitals in outdoor wings of government hospitals has been issued,” Pandit submitted.

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