Hospital cannot withhold release of patients for non-payment of dues, Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court yesterday passed an order directing the capital’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital to discharge a patient whose custody was withheld on account of non-payment of medical bills..The Division Bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Deepa Sharma held,.“Merely because the dues of the Hospital treating the patient are outstanding, that certainly cannot be a reason to withhold the release of the patient…..We deprecate this practice.”.The Court directed the hospital to prepare the discharge summary and allowed the petitioner to remove his father from the hospital on his own responsibility..This order was passed in a writ filed by the patient’s son, who alleged that apart from illegally detaining his father to extract money, the hospital was also not giving him proper treatment..The petitioner submitted that he had paid an amount of Rs. 3.30 lakh at the time of admitting his father, but subsequently, bills amounting to Rs. 13.38 lakh were raised in an arbitrary manner and without application of mind..The patient, who was a Constable in the Economic Offense Wing, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, was admitted on February 28 this year, following deterioration of health due to enterocutaneous fistula..The petitioner further alleged that since the bills raised by the hospital were not paid, his father was shifted from the Private Ward to the General Ward and had been kept in a pathetic and deplorable state..The counsel for the petitioner Nitin Jain also argued that this modus operandi has been adopted earlier as well in respect of other patients..However, the hospital denied all the allegations made by the petitioner and stated that the patient has been receiving proper treatment and that a surgery was also performed on April 21, although the patient was shifted to the General Ward since the charges were not paid..Read the Order: