The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC)b has asked 42 hospitals in the city to shift patients as they are likely to be shut down within a week. The move comes after the AMC cracked down on hospitals that have been functioning without a Building Use (BU) permission.
All buildings must get BU permission before the building is put to use. All the 42 hospitals had continued functioning sans the requisite BU permission. The AMC has given them a week to get the same or shift patients to other hospitals.
The civic body has also threatened to take legal action against the hospitals if they fail to do its bidding.
Earlier in June, the hospitals had moved the Gujarat High Court seeking relief from the AMC’s diktat to seal their premises due to lack of fire safety NOCs and BU permission.
The civic body had all issued notices to 44 hospitals to produce BU permission following the fire incident in the ICU of Shrey Hospital in Ahmedabad in August 2020.
Later it sealed two of the 44 hospitals but could not seal the rest as the hospitals had moved the high court. But the HC in June refused to give any relief to them. The court at the time of dismissing the petition pointed out that the hospitals despite their arguments had failed to provide proof of any BU permission.
It had also given the petitioners two weeks to shift patients to other hospitals. In the meantime, the hospitals moved the Supreme Court which granted relief of two months to the hospitals thus preventing the AMC from taking any coercive action against them.
At that time, the apex court had observed that it was not advisable to seal the hospitals during the pandemic. The two-month relief has now come to an end and the AMC is determined to take action against the erring hospitals.