It is in response to a PIL filed by the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan and KM Gopakumar in order to ensure affordable and quality healthcare.
A PIL was filed for uniform standard of healthcare across the country. Representational Image. (Creative Commons)
The Supreme Court on Friday, 2 December, directed the Centre and the states to file their responses on a petition seeking directions for a uniform standard of healthcare in India, in line with the Constitution, by adopting provisions of the Clinical Establishments Act (CEA), 2010.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath granted four weeks to the Union of India and the state governments to file their replies.
The top court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, Patients’ Rights Campaign, and KM Gopakumar, which had also sought directions for operationalising all the provisions of the Act, as well as Clinical Establishment Rules, 2012, in order to ensure affordable and quality healthcare.
The petition had sought directions for notification and implementation of the conditions for registration of clinical establishments, such as observance of minimum standards, display of rates for procedures and services, and compliance with the standard treatment protocol, as provided in Sections 11 and 12 of the CEA, read with Rule 9 of the Rules, 2012.
The petition had also sought directions that a grievance redressal mechanism be created for the patients at the district, state, and national levels till the lacunae in the CEA are filled by suitable legislation.
The petition said that the duty to provide healthcare to citizens was put on the government under Article 47 of the Constitution, however, the public healthcare system did not proceed as conceived and treats only 30 per cent of the patients, while the rest are treated by the private sector.
The petition contended that the public healthcare system suffers from a lack of public health infrastructure and human resources, non-availability of medicines, lack of public investment and forced dependency on the private sector.
The petition submitted that there is an urgent need to develop the public healthcare system in India by providing proper infrastructure and a sufficient budget to ensure that the maximum facilities exist in the public domain, not only in normal times but also at the time of emergencies such as Covid-19.
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