Dengue scare: Delhi government mulls special Assembly session to rein in private hospitals

New Delhi: Even as the national capital reels under one of the worst dengue outbreaks in recent years, the Delhi government is mulling an special Assembly session frame a law to deal with negligence of private hospitals.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was quoted by the India Today group as saying that they might hold a special Assembly session to bring in a law wherein hospitals who refuse healthcare to patients can be punished.

Meanwhile, the death of a child due to dengue allegedly because of apathy of hospitals - the second such case in a week - led Kejriwal to conduct surprise inspections of hospitals on Tuesday.

He also held a meeting of his Cabinet.

The cabinet stressed the need for ensuring accountability of private hospitals and felt an effective system of patient care should be introduced, an official release said.

And Health Minister Satyendra Jain held meetings with officials of private hospitals and told them to increase the number of beds, admit dengue patients and not turn them away.

He said government hospitals, if needed, can hold walk-in interviews to recruit more doctors and nurses to deal with the rush of patients, as per IAN

On the other hand, the Delhi government also issued instructions to schools to ensure that for the next one month students come to classes wearing clothes which fully cover them irrespective of school uniforms.

A 29-year-old woman from northwest Delhi died of dengue at the Lok Nayak Jaya Prakash (LNJP) Hospital on Monday evening.

According to data released till Monday by the three civic corporations - North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North DMC), South DMC and East DMC - the number of deaths due to dengue was five and the total dengue cases reported in the city were 1,872.

The family members of six-year-old Aman, who died on Sunday, alleged on Tuesday that several hospitals declined him admission while the child was running up a fever.

Aman was then taken to Safdarjung Hospital and later to the Holy Family Hospital where he died.

Last week, seven-year-old Avinash Rout from Odisha died of dengue.

Following his death, Avinash's parents committed suicide by jumping from the fourth floor of the building they lived in.

Avinash too was allegedly denied admission by five hospitals - Moolchand Hospital, Aakash Hospital, Saket City Hospital, Max Hospital (Saket) and Irene Hospital (Kalkaji).

The Delhi government on Tuesday ordered a magisterial inquiry into the alleged refusal by some private hospitals to admit Avinash.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia instructed the divisional commissioner to depute the local sub-divisional magistrate to conduct the probe and submit a report to the Delhi government within seven days.

Kejriwal, who along with Satyendra Jain conducted surprise inspections at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital and Dr Hedgewar Hospital, asked the doctors to treat the patients properly and not to turn them away.

He also assured of strict action against hospitals which turn away patients citing any excuse.

(With IANS inputs)