Rift over MLA’s letter widens, putting all blame on pvt hospitals counterproductive, says medico

Jewar MLA Dhirendra Singh has recently written a letter to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging them to take a slew of measures to ensure that private healthcare facilities do their bit in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). He has also blamed hospitals of Noida and Greater Noida for allegedly charging hefty amount to admit patients as well as sending out ‘fake SOS’ messages for oxygen to create an atmosphere of mistrust and confusion.

Following his letter, Chief Medical Officer of the district, Deepak Ohri has issued a notice to different private hospitals, asking them to offer an explanation within three days.

However, the angst against several issues mentioned in the letter is palpable amongst the medical community of the district.

Director of Prakash Hospital, Ayush Chauhan has praised the concern of the MLA over corporate social responsibility, while also attempting to clarify the ambit of this act.

“If we talk about corporate social responsibility then the applicability of the same is following according to the companies act. Applicability:

Section 135 of the Companies Act 2013 provides the threshold limit for applicability of the
CSR to a Company: (a) net worth of the company to be Rs 500 crore or more; or
(b) turnover of the company to be Rs 1000 crore or more; or
(c) net profit of the company to be Rs 5 crore or more,” he wrote in a post, adding, that these are the points that must be applicable for mandatory expenditure on CSR to be applicable on companies.

On MLA’s suggestion regarding adopting health care facilities in rural areas, Chauhan has outlined the shortage of staff that private players of the field are already facing.

“Vacant position of healthworkers in the government hospitals and health care centres should be filled by the government itself as already all the private hospitals are facing staff shortage. So it won’t be practically feasible for hospitals to adopt govt health centres at this hour,” he stated.

Chauhan further added, “I understand you must be concerned about the people of your constituency but the fact is around 90% of the patients were treated by private hospitals only. It will be unfair to put all the blame on private hospitals, it will be disheartening for all the staff and health workers.”