The Orissa High Court today asked the state government to ensure adequate publicity for free treatment available to poor patients in private hospitals, which have got free government land or at concessional rates.
In an interim order passed on the day while adjudicating over a PIL, the division bench of justices A K Rath and B R Sarangi ordered that the state government notification made in this regard in July be widely publicised, according to the petitioner's counsel Khirod Rout.
Rohan Mohanty had filed the petition in the high court stating that despite a Supreme Court guideline of November 2011 for free treatment to a certain percentage of poor patients in private hospitals, the Odisha government was unaware about it till May.
The apex court had ordered that all private hospitals, which have been allotted land by the state government either free of cost or at concessional rates, shall provide free treatment to poor patients.
The number of these poor patients shall not be more than 25 per cent for outpatient department and 10 per cent for indoor patients.
