Taking a serious view at the exorbitant fees being charged by private hospitals for COVID-19 treatment, a division bench of the Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the director of public health and family welfare to exercise the powers bestowed on him, to even cancel the registration of such hospitals, under the Clinical Establishment Act, 2010 against the erring private hospitals.
The Court also directed the state government to exercise the powers delegated to it by the Centre under the Act to control and supervise functioning of private hospitals. Further, the Court directed the state to permit Gandhi hospital to extend testing facilities to all the patients having COVID-19 symptoms. The division Court directed the state to submit detailed factual report with regard to implementation of its directions by July 27. The Court passed this order in batch of PILs filed on COVID-19 issue.