No fire NOC, expired licences: Red flags raised in ACB audit of 146 Delhi nursing homes

– Four hospitals do not have registration certificates.

These glaring discrepancies were flagged by the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) in its latest audit report following an inspection of 146 nursing homes and small hospitals in Delhi. These lapses, it said, may lead to “fire incidents” and other major “mishappenings”.

Following the deadly fire at Baby Care New Born Hospital in Vivek Vihar that left six newborns dead in May, Delhi L-G V K Saxena ordered the inspection. In its chargesheet filed in July, the Delhi Police had said the neonatal hospital had no fire safety equipment, no qualified nurses, the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) housed more beds than sanctioned strength, and more cylinders than prescribed were being stored in a hazardous manner.

Stating that many establishments were found flouting norms prescribed under the Delhi Nursing Home Registration (DNHR) Act, 1953, the ACB sought urgent attention from all departments concerned to address the issue.

The investigating agency also found deficiencies and shortcomings on the part of the Health Department, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), and Delhi Fire Services. The report has been submitted to the Directorate of Vigilance (DoV), said officials.

Following a letter from the DoV, the vigilance branch of the health department on July 15 asked the director of the Directorate General Of Health Services (DGHS) to provide “detailed bio-data along with comments/specific recommendations containing role and responsibilities of each accused officer involved in the matter to DoV at the earliest”.

Sources said the ACB has also moved a separate proposal to obtain sanction under the Prevention of Corruption Act against seven officials of the health department, “The proposal has been processed and sanction for investigation/enquiry is awaited,” said sources.

What are the lapses that were flagged

-Many nursing homes increased the capacity of the beds without obtaining permission from the authority concerned.

According to sources in the government, “Several hospitals were flouting safety norms by increasing the number of beds over the sanctioned figure… medical infrastructure was found on the verge of collapse… In some nursing homes, there was no bed, patients were being treated on the staircase.”

“The illegal increase of beds in nursing homes has caused an unnecessary burden on the infrastructure… and this may also lead to some major mishappening in the future. This is not possible without either connivance or complicity on the part of DGHS officials,” said an official.

-The office of DGHS, MS (Nursing Home), delayed the renewal and registration process for several months without any ‘cogent’ reasons, said sources.

“This has created a state of confusion on whether these nursing homes should be treated as having a valid registration or not… It also signals something fishy on the part of health department officials,” sources added.
Sources said as per the DNHR Act, after filing a renewal application, the stipulated time for renewal of registration is one month. After this, it is presumed that registration automatically stands renewed. “However, there is an unexplainable delay of several months on the part of the MS (NH) DGHS,” they said.

Sources claimed health officials kept applications pending for six months to 1.5 years without stating any reason. “It has also been observed that the deficiency list is very general in nature having not mentioned any specific shortcoming noted during physical inspection, which is a clear indicator that these inspections were table inspections and not done physically on the ground,” said sources.

-During the probe, the ACB found many nursing homes were using basements to run OPD services.

-Many establishments had no fire exits and even those that had them were found locked during the inspection. Further, several nursing homes did not have fire NOCs despite the height of the building being above 9 metres.

-The probe also reveals discrepancies on the part of MCD such as deviation from the sanctioned site plan. At many nursing homes, there was no mention of the basement in the site plan but basements were found to be in use during the inspection.

-Doctors at these nursing homes were also found unqualified or had BAMS degrees.

This is the second round of inspections. In the first round, the ACB inspected 60 nursing homes.