Patna: Paras HMRI hospital will provide free treatment to emergency patients at a time private hospitals across the country are increasingly being seen as profit-hungry.

Hospital director Dr Talat Haleem said the hospital will not charge emergency patients till they are stabilised.

"Recently I read in the newspapers that at least five children lost their limbs in road accidents on their way to or back from school," said Haleem. "Had those children been provided medical assistance in time, their condition might have been better. The first hour of such an emergency is called the golden hour and it is critical to act in this golden hour to save lives.

"We at Paras HMRI have decided not to refuse any emergency case," he added. "We would stabilise a patient and then refer him/her to any other hospital if the relatives express desire for it. We won't charge anything for the treatment till the patient is stabilised."

Last week the hospital treated two such emergency cases for free, the management said.

The director also referred to the Supreme Court's guideline that, he said, states: "any patient coming in the state of emergency at any hospital has to be resuscitated and stabilised first".

He added: "The hospital cannot refuse the patient even though refusal of emergency cases have become a norm."