Regulations for private hospital in Kerala? RTI for private hospitals?

Renjit Kumar  to me, Sherry

show details Nov 23 (1 day ago)

Hi sherry, 1) whether Private hospitals comes under the RTI act? 2) whether any rule or regulations or laws are there for     private hospital or any act in india. 3) whether labour law protects private hospitals employees. 1) It will not come under RTI. But the Delhi Chief Information Commissioner's order was upheld by the High Court regarding the question of private schools... also come under RTI, because, regulations are there by Gov to conduct an school. similarly, regulations are there to conduct a hospital. so it  is a question yet to challenge. But at present, in Kerala, it is not under RTI. 2) Recently, the Bombay group of 'Medico Friend Circle' sent out a letter/cessionaire to the Health Secretaries of all states and union territories to find out whether any law existed in the state for regulation of private hospitals and nursing homes and in the existence or absence of any such law, what exactly were such regulations. After reminders, ten states (Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Goa, Mizoram, Gujarat, Orissa, Sikkim and Manipur) and one union territory ( Daman and Diu) responded. To our great shock the responses were identical. None of these states have any laws, rules and regulations or even data for private hospitals and nursing homes. The government of Kerala specifically wrote back "This state government has no control over private hospitals/nursing homes functioning in this state at present, as there is no legislation now for this purpose". In addition to the ten states mentioned above, we know of two more states, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh which too do not have any law, rules and regulation over the private hospitals and nursing homes. To our knowledge only Maharashtra and Delhi are having a specific law for registration and regulation of private hospitals/nursing homes. In Delhi there is the Delhi Nursing Home Registration Act (DNHRA), 1953 while in Maharashtra it is Bombay Nursing Home Registration Act (BNHRA), 1949. Thus the BNHRA was passed in the unified Bombay State, i.e. from 1949 to 1960 the BNHRA was covering both present day Gujarat as well as Maharashtra. Curiously, after bifurcation of the Bombay state in 1960, although many anti people acts (like Bombay Industrial Relation Act) were adopted by Gujarat, it chose not to adopt the BNHRA. 3) the labour laws are applicable. it can be taken up.