ECHS disempanelment: HC breather for 7 pvt hospitals in Punjab

The Punjab and Haryana high court has quashed the director, regional centre, Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS), Jalandhar, decision to disempanel seven private hospitals in Punjab.

The hospitals include: Neelkanth Hospital, Life Kare Hospital, Gupta Multi-speciality Hospital, Akashdeep Hospital, Madaan Hospital, Jeevan Jyot Hospital and Verma Hospital.

It was alleged that hospitals indulged in malpractices and wrong activities, besides cheating, mischief, forgery, making false documents and breach of contract to grab huge amount by showing false record and misleading veterans for collecting their ECHS cards with the intention of forgery. FIRs were also registered in some cases in 2020.

The court observed that procedure detailed in the agreements for taking action against hospitals for disempanelment was not followed by the ECHS office and proper opportunity of hearing was also not given.

The court clarified that disempanelment has been set aside on technical grounds only and merits of the case have not been gone into. The proceedings in the case would not have a bearing on criminal proceedings initiated in against some hospitals, the court said. Hindustan Times