Mumbai, Apr 23 (PTI) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said the government has taken a serious note of the complaints that some hospitals do not treat patients without taking a deposit, and said instructions have been given to form a special inspection team to control charity hospitals.

The special inspection team will be formed in coordination with the Charity Commissioner, Health Department and Chief Minister’s Medical Assistance Cell, a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said.

Charity hospitals in the state should provide free treatment to patients from poor and vulnerable groups. Hospitals should register information about remaining beds and Indigent Patient Fund (IPF) in the online system, it said.

Fadnavis was speaking at the review meeting of the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund Cell and Charity Hospital Relief Cell .

The meeting assumes significance in the backdrop of the death of a pregnant woman in Pune after she was alleged denied admission by Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital.

Fadnavis said that as per the Charity Trust rules, it was mandatory to reserve 10 per cent of the beds in charity hospitals for the poor and 10 per cent for the weaker sections.

In emergency situations, it is necessary to provide urgent treatment and medical services until the patient is stable. Hospitals should not take any deposit, he said.

The Charity Hospital Help Desk should develop an online system for the effective implementation of the charity scheme.

A district-level committee should be formed to monitor charity hospitals. In addition, efforts should be made to link and coordinate the health schemes of the central and state governments, he added.

Fadnavis also gave directions to appoint department-wise independent officers under the Charity Commissioner for the effective implementation of the scheme.

Filling of information online is mandatory, he said.

“It should be mandatory for hospitals registered with the Charity Office to enter information about the treatment given to patients and the remaining beds in the online system,” he said.

A list should be prepared of hospitals taking land and other concessions in the municipal area and taking land concessions from the revenue department.

The Chief Minister also directed to form a cluster and appoint a committee head to coordinate in this regard and take action against hospitals that do not submit information.

Every charitable hospital in the state should put up large-print boards with information about schemes, diseases and treatments for patients. This board will help the relatives of the patients to get information about the status of vacant beds, government schemes operating in the hospital and other information.

All the information should be made available in an online system to make it accessible to everyone, he said, adding that providing information on the dashboard will help the patients. A separate system should be created to update this regularly, Fadnavis said.

The Charity Hospital Cell was established in 2023 and 10,738 online applications have been received so far. In this, 7,371 patients have been treated and a fund of Rs 24.53 crore has been spent, said Rameshwar Naik, Head of the Chief Minister’s Medical Assistance Cell, in his presentation. PTI MR NP