There can be no uniformity in rates charged by private hospitals, Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court has held that there could be no uniformity in the rates charged by private hospitals and nursing homes from the patients falling under general category..Stating that all private hospitals and nursing homes cannot be equated with respect to the charges required to be paid by the patients, the Court has observed,.“It depends upon the nature of disease/diagnosis of the patients and the type of treatment given by the private homes/hospitals. Even otherwise, the charges to be paid by the patients as levied by the private nursing homes and hospitals depend upon the facilities available with them.”.The judgment was passed a Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and C Hari Shankar in a petition by NGO Legal Forum for Women Empowerment seeking to impose a cap upon the charges being charged by the private nursing homes and hospitals..After hearing the counsel for both the sides and looking into the facts and circumstances of the case, the Court opined that charges levied by private nursing homes and hospitals depended upon a variety of factors..It said,.“It appears that the charges of the private nursing homes and hospitals depend upon the variety of factors like, .(a) number of facilities being provided by the private nursing homes and hospitals,.(b) the promptness in providing of services by the private nursing homes and hospitals, .(c) the efficiency of the staff engaged by the private nursing homes/and hospitals .(d) number and quality of services provided by the private nursing homes and hospitals etc.”.The Court, therefore, concluded that since the charges to be paid by a patient would depend upon the nature of the disease, diagnosis and other facilities, there could be no uniformity of charges levied by private nursing homes and hospitals..In view of the above, the Court ordered,.“..we see no reason to entertain this writ petition… With these observations, this writ petition is hereby dismissed.”.The petitioner was represented by Advocates Payal Bahl and Athar Alam..The Respondent, NCT of Delhi, was represented by Additional Standing Counsel Sanjoy Ghose with Advocate Urvi Mohan..Read the Order: