Govt suspends AMRI admissions

All documents submitted by hospitals applying for a licence will be put up on the health department website. It will be updated regularly so that when hospitals bend rules,patients know about it and can decide whether to go there, said an official.

The matter was discussed in a meeting on Monday. Making these documents public is in the interest of everybody. This is information that would have to be shared were an RTI application to be filed, said an official. Sources said the exercise may take a few weeks as it would require scanning and uploading of voluminous documents.

Meanwhile,the health department slapped a notice under Section 21D of the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Act CE on AMRI,suspending all new admissions. The notice,officials say,is a prerequisite to the cancellation of a licence. Section 21D authorises the government to prohibit a clinical establishment from offering treatment if the licensing authority is satisfied that an imminent danger to the health and safety of any member of the public or patient exist with respect to that clinical establishment8230;

The authorities have been asked to move the remaining patients to other hospitals at their own cost. Many of the 73 survivors in the 190-bed hospital have already left.

State funeral for Kerala nurses

Thiruvananthapuram: The two nurses from Kerala who died in the hospital fire were given a state funeral in Kottayam on Monday. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy received the bodies of P K Vineetha and Remya Rajappan at Kochi airport on Sunday night.

Orissa project hit

Bhubaneswar: The fire at the AMRI hospital in Kolkata seems to have cast its shadow on the hospital groups expansion plans in Orissa. The 300-bed AMRI hospital in Bhubaneswar,under construction since January 2009,is not likely to begin functioning before mid-2012,officials said.