PUNE, Jan 1: The Kum Rajashree Parmar Memorial Foundation, an organisation devoted to the mission of road safety and awareness, has urged the health ministry to fix minimum criteria regarding the infrastructural facilities for accident hospitals which claim to provide relief to the victims.The foundation's managing trustee Chandmal Parmar while addressing media persons, cited the tragedy of six-year-old Aditya Risbud who died because no immediate treatment could be provided to him due to lack of any facilities at the Gupte Accident Hospital. The Risbud family had met with a mishap on December 15 on the Sinhagad ghat road.While Shriniwas and his wife Sayali died on the spot, two youths who found Aditya, first took him to at the clinic of Dr Maya Chandiwale, who suggested that the boy be rushed to the Gupte Accident Hospital at Kolhewadi. The hospital, which proclaimed to be an accident hospital, did not have a proper motorable road, and lacked the necessary staff to provide First-Aid to the victim. The youths later took Aditya to another hospital which informed them that Aditya had died. Nearly twenty valuable minutes were lost in taking Aditya to the Gupte Hospital and later to the next hospital.Parmar referred to the case in his letter addressed to the health minister Daulatrao Aher and drew his attention towards the mushrooming of the accident hospitals across the highways. He said considering the importance of accident hospitals, many doctors across the highway are naming and advertising their clinics or polyclinics as accident hospitals without adequate infrastructural support required to treat the victims.A study by the foundation showed that there was no standard criteria for minimum infrastructural support at the hospitals. Parmar said neither the Nursing Home Registration Act 1948 or any other enactment has cited any minimum requirements to refer to it as hospital nursing home. Though hospital nursing home has to be registered under the Bombay Nursing Home Registration Act, many hospitals exist without registrations and there no remedial measures are adopted against the non-registered hospitals. The letter stated that accident hospital has a more special status than a nursing home for which no criteria have been mentioned anywhere in the Act or any other provisions of the law as well as the rules and regulations of the Medical Council of India.State president of the Indian Medical Association Dr P D Gupte who was also present said the Indian Medical Council which had guidelines about the medical colleges, had no norms regarding the infrastructural facilities at the hospitals. He said the advertisements such as 24-hour service at the hospitals was given only to attract patients. The health department is required to inspect the registrations of the hospitals. Dr Gupte said that in Pune city alone, while there are nearly 1400 hospitals only 459 of them were registered with the municipal corporation.Parmar clarified that he was not necessarily fighting against any particular hospital but against the prevailing attitude of the hospitals of not being eager enough to provide treatment to victims.
