397 charitable hospitals will have reserve 20% beds for poor patients | Mumbai news

MUMBAI: In order to ensure that the poor get adequate medical treatment at all charitable hospitals in Maharashtra, the state Assembly cleared an amendment in Maharashtra Public Trusts Act on Thursday, which mandates that all charitable hospitals that have taken monetary concessions and exemptions either from the state or central government or the municipal corporation, follow the charity bed rules.

While in the existing policy states that the hospitals that have taken lands on lease from the government reserve beds for the underprivileged, the amendment brings more clarity to the rule.

Section 41AA of the act mandates charitable hospitals must reserve 20% of the beds for patients who cannot afford basic healthcare out of which 10% of the beds should be free of charge for patients who are below poverty line (BPL) and rest at concessional rates. However, the government is known to have regularly receive complaints from patients who say charitable hospitals have denied them treatment free of cost or at concessional rates, with the latter saying the rules of the policy were unclear.

In this scenario, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis moved a bill to make two amendments in the act. “The rule of charity beds will have to be followed by the charitable hospitals who have been given exemption from payment of annual contribution to the Public Trusts Administration Fund, by the state government under section 58,” states the bill, as also exemptions from various taxes.

“While only 94 charitable hospitals are currently providing the facility of charity beds, with this amendment, another 303 hospitals, that have taken different concessions, have been added to the list,” said Ashish Jaiswal, the minister of state for finance in the state assembly.