The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Delhi government to frame a scheme to ensure that private hospitals functioning on subsidised land provide medical care to the poor for free. Why are you not doing so? Why did you agree to the terms and conditions of lease agreement for taking land? a bench of Justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik said. The court asked the hospitals to sort out the issue with government authorities and work out a scheme to treat poor patients 25 per cent outdoor and 10 per cent indoor free of cost. In the meantime,patients from government hospitals should be referred to private hospitals that provide free treatment,it added. The court was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by 10 hospitals,challenging an order directing them to provide free treatment to the poor.
