Bombay HC pulls up state over illegal nursing homes

Mumbai: Questioning the state government, the Bombay high court has asked, “What is the mechanism to trace illegal nursing homes.” The high court also questioned the state government about the provisions to punish the operators of such illegal nursing homes.

The petition filed by Atul Bhosale, a Pune resident, claimed that only 326 out of 4000 nursing homes in the Pune district were registered with the state government. The petitioner has sought action against illegal nursing homes in Maharashtra. The petitioner claimed “Following his father death at a nursing home in Pune; he had collected information from various newspaper reports which revealed that more than 4000 nursing homes are functioning in Pune District out of which only 326 nursing homes are registered.”

Petition alleged, “State Government has no control over these nursing homes. There is no proper data available with the state government to ascertain how many nursing homes are legal.” The petition also claimed that the medical waste generated in these nursing homes was not being disposed off properly. The petitioner added, “These nursing homes were recruiting unqualified medical staff and putting patients’ lives in danger.”

Petition states that central government had enacted the Clinical Establishments Act 2010 and though the states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand have adopted the stringent provisions of act, Maharashtra government had failed to implement the act.