The Ahmedabad Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (AHNA) announced on Friday that hospitals and nursing homes in Ahmedabad will be closed on May 14 and 15 in protest of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s (AMC) refusal to waive a valid building use (BU) permit for Form C registration renewal.
AHNA said hospitals and nursing homes will be closed for routine admission, OPD services and planned surgeries and procedures over the weekend.
AHNA also announced that it has planned a blood donation camp from 9 am to 11 am on May 15 at Vallabh Sadan at Ashram Road, to send a “message to the authorities” that the private medical fraternity will continue “doing our noble work despite the obstructions by them”.
Form-C is a requirement validating a medical establishment as a registered entity under the Bombay Nursing Homes Act, 1949. It has been AHNA’s case that till date hospitals and nursing homes did not face any issue in renewal of their Form-C registration in the absence of valid BU permit.
Terming AMC’s decision to refuse renewal of Form-C registration for nearly 400 medical establishments without valid BU permits as an “unjust act”, AHNA in a press note added that despite repeated representations to the authorities in this regard, “no solution” has been provided for the burning issues”.
Notably after two major hospital fires in Gujarat — in August 2020 at Shrey Hospital in Ahmedabad that killed eight patients and in November 2020 at Uday Shivanand Hospital at Rajkot that killed nine — a public interest litigation (PIL) on fire and building safety was initiated at the Gujarat High Court.
During the hearing of this PIL, Gujarat HC has repeatedly pressed the state and its concerned authorities to ensure BU permit and fire compliance in all buildings, especially in hospitals and schools, as these two categories of buildings house vulnerable population, namely patients who may be bed-ridden and immobile to act swiftly in case of a mishap or fire, and children.
At a press conference on May 7, AHNA urged AMC to waive the mandatory requirement of a valid BU certificate for renewal of Form-C registration for medical establishments, citing the “impending closure of nearly 400-450 small hospitals and nursing homes in Ahmedabad,” which could increase to 1,000 units, according to AHNA.