Economic
Times: New Delhi: Friday, 10 April 2015.
The CIC has
told the Centre and the state governments to enforce RTI in private hospitals
and ensure they provide medical records to patients on a daily basis. In a
scathing order against Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj, which had refused to give
records of a deceased patient to his son, the transparency watchdog has
directed that daily disclosure would prevent undesirable practices of altering
records after damage caused to a patient.
In his
32-page order, Information Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu has asked Fortis to
provide all records to the applicant Prabhat Kumar, whose father Kailash Prasad
Singh had passed away in November 2012. The hospital's refusal was seen by CIC
as "undesirable example of defiance of private hospitals and of their
indifference towards lives, health and rights of the patients from whom they
fleece huge amounts of money". CIC said right to medical records is equal
in private and public hospitals.
A Fortis
spokesperson said, "The order is passed today and it is too early to
comment. Our lawyers need to study the same and based on their legal advice, we
will take next steps." CIC has also taken a stern view of the attitude of
Delhi government's directorate of health services, which is the regulatory
authority for hospitals and the public authority where RTI had been filed by
Prabhat Kumar.
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