Add ‘charitable’ word in name of all charitable hospitals – Charity Commissioner

NP NEWS NETWORK

Pune

All charitable hospitals across the state have to compulsorily add the word ‘charitable’ in their names from now on. State Charity commissioner Shivkumar Dige on Wednesday directed all the 430 charitable hospitals in Maharashtra in this regard.

Some hospitals, despite having ‘charitable’ tag and controlled by state charity commissionerate, have written their own names on their boards, forcing the poor patients to assume that these hospitals, which are swanky and have corporate look, are not for the poor but only for rich patients. This assumption deters them from getting the treatment for which they are eligible under the Indigent Patients Fund (IPF) scheme which is framed by the order of the High Court in the year 2003.

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The IPF scheme which assures the economically poor patients (whose annual income is less than Rs 1.60 lakh per year) 50 per cent discount in the total bill amount and deprived patients (annual income less than Rs 80,000 per year) free treatment, is mandatory in all charitable hospitals. Therefore, poor patients must avail of the benefit.

Speaking about this new order, the charity commissioner Dige said, “The patients can’t notice easily that whether a particular hospital is charitable or not as the charitable name is not mentioned on their boards. Eligible people from economically weaker sections of the society should easily come to know that whether any hospital is a charitable one or not. So I have ordered that all the hospitals have to add the word ‘charitable’ in their names.”

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Navnath Jagtap, deputy charity commissioner, Pune division, said on Wednesday that a meeting of representatives of the association of Pune hospitals was held and they were told to add ‘charitable’ word in their names.

“Gopal Phadke, president of Pune hospital association has agreed to our suggestions”, added Jagtap.