All private hospitals have to allow patients 15 days to undergo the investigations advised by a doctor and report back with the results for free, the chairperson of the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission said on Monday.
The current window for a free follow-up with test reports is a week at most private hospitals.
Ashim Banerjee, chairperson of the clinical establishment regulatory commission, said the panel would issue an advisory to all private hospitals to expand the window to 15 days. This will be applicable only to patients in the outpatient department (OPD).
Currently, if an OPD patient reports back within seven days with the results of the tests advised by a doctor, the second visit is not charged.
But many patients fail to get all the investigations done within seven days, Banerjee said.
From the eighth day, a patient has to pay the full consultation fee for showing the test reports to the doctor.
Banerjee announced the decision after a person who had lodged a complaint against a private hospital in the city suggested that hospitals extend the time given to patients to get the investigations done and show the reports to the doctor without paying the consultation fee.
“We will ask all private hospitals to give patients 15 days’ time to undergo the investigations prescribed by the doctor, instead of seven days, which is the current norm. These rules were not there earlier. Patients did not have to pay anything to show investigation reports to doctors,” Banerjee later told The Telegraph.
“The matter is not always in the doctor’s hand. There are many doctors who are not consultants. They are salaried employees of hospitals. Such doctors, even if they don’t want to charge anything for checking a report, are bound to follow the rules of the hospital,” Banerjee said.
Banerjee did not say by when the commission would issue the advisory on extending the window from seven to 15 days.
Rupak Barua, group CEO of AMRI Hospitals, said the extension would not have any negative impact on private hospitals.
“It will benefit patients. It is not always possible for them to get the investigations done and collect the reports within seven days. Patients usually take two or three days to visit a laboratory to undergo the tests and the results may take a few more days to arrive,” said Barua, who is also president of the Association of Hospitals of Eastern India.
A senior official of a private hospital said the seven-day period was fixed by individual hospitals and there is no law that binds hospitals to allow patients to report back for free within seven days.
If the clinical establishment regulatory commission issues the advisory, this will be the first such deadline applicable across hospitals.
“We have to wait for the advisory. It is fine if the commission wants private hospitals to allow OPD patients 15 days to report back with investigation results for free,” the official said.
“This should not include a second consultation where a doctor makes therapeutic changes. Such consultation should be charged because doctors use their acumen to make the changes,” the officials aid.