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On Wednesday, the Supreme Court directed the Government of the Center to identify private hospitals where corona virus patients could be treated free of charge or at a minimum cost while hearing a plea via videoconferencing seeking a national cost-related regulation for coronary artery patients in private and corporate hospitals;
The decision is taken by a bench headed by India's Chief Justice SA Bobde, Justice AS Bopanna & Hrishkesh Roy. "You identify and find out about all those hospitals," Bobde said. "You try to find out whether these hospitals can charge a minimum cost or even free of charge."
S A Bobde asked why private hospitals, which were given land free of charge by the government, could not treat patients free of charge, "They were given land either free of charge or at a very nominal cost," "These private charitable hospitals should treat them free of charge."
The petition was then filed by a lawyer, Sachin Jain, who claimed that private hospitals in the country were commercially exploiting patients to make a "fortune out of their misery" during the health crisis.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing before the Supreme Court for the Center, said that, as a matter of policy, a decision must be taken by the government. After one week the matter was listed for hearing. The Supreme Court, last month, sought the Center's response to control the cost of treating coronavirus and adjourned the matter. Jain sought a direction to treat patients with coronavirus pro-bono, or on a non-profit basis, by private hospitals operating on public land.
Medical treatment owes a constitutional duty to treat people with disabilities, and a person cannot be denied treatment merely on the ground that he is not in a position to pay the fee payable for such expensive treatment, "read the petition. It is of serious concern that a large section of the population in India still does not have insurance coverage and is also not covered by any government health scheme.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the Indian Medical Research Council of the country's coronavirus nodal body removed the price cap of Rs 4,500 for real-time polymerase chain reactions or RT-PCR tests. The decision has now been taken on the basis of the availability of indigenous test kits and other supplies in India.
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