Gorakhpur: Licences of 45 pvt hospitals revoked as they fail to provide affidavits on full-time doctors

“Doctors’ affidavits, along with other documents, submitted to the office of the Chief Medical Officer while applying for registration to run private hospitals were examined. In these affidavits, doctors stated their commitment to working full-time at the respective hospitals. However, during the inquiry, it was discovered that the affidavit of some doctors had been submitted at more than one place to seek registration,” said Dr Anil Singh, Additional Chief Medical Officer of Gorakhpur, on Tuesday.

After making a list of over 100 such hospitals, the district administration issued notices to the managements concerned.

“We identified 102 private hospitals and the managements were directed to submit affidavits from other doctors failing which their registrations would be cancelled. The management of 57 hospitals complied… by providing affidavits of other full-time doctors. However, the management of 45 private hospitals failed to submit the required affidavits, resulting in the cancellation of their registrations. The exercise has been going on for five months,” added Dr Anil Singh.

There are around 250 private hospitals and 600 private clinics running in Gorakhpur district. Over the past six months, a massive operation has been underway   to address issues in private hospitals and clinics.

“Over the past year, 25 private hospitals and 10 private clinics have been sealed for not completing formalities…Such as there were no full-time doctors or fire extinguishing system was not in place. In the meantime, the district administration cancelled new registration and renewal applications of 715 private hospitals, clinics, pathology and dental clinics for not adhering to formalities,” said Singh.

When contacted, Chief Medical Officer, Gorakhpur, Dr Ashutosh Kumar Dubey said an exercise is underway to “monitor working of hospitals.”

Last week, the Gorakhpur police arrested eight persons and claimed to have dismantled a racket involved in defrauding patients by allegedly redirecting them from Baba Raghav Das Medical College (BRD) to a private hospital lacking the necessary facilities for their treatment.

The racket was exposed when a team from the chief medical officer (CMO) visited a private hospital for inspection.