Cuttack, May 17: The district health officials today sealed three nursing homes in the city, intensifying their crackdown on illegal clinical establishments.
The three nursing homes in question had been operating without licences at Cantonment Road, Mangalabag and Bajrakabati. Durga Nursing Home, a 12-bed facility by Cantonment Road, the 10-bed Sai Krishna Nursing Home and a diagnostic laboratory at Bajrakabati were sealed for operating without necessary approvals.
"During the raids, no owner of the clinical establishments were present and the staff members could not produce the necessary documents. We closed the centres today," said additional district medical officer Abhaya Patnaik.
Patnaik said the Sai Krishna Nursing Home had been established three months ago while the Durga Nursing Home had been operating for more than four years. "We will issue notices to the three institutions to produce necessary documents, including their licences. If they fail to produce those, appropriate legal action will be taken against the owners," Patnaik said.
This is for the second time that the authorities have acted tough against clinical institutions operating without approvals. On April 8, two nursing homes and an in-house medicine store were sealed. The two health care facilities in question were the Tulasi Nursing Home at Sahebadabad and the United Hospital at Haripur road in Cuttack.
The officials had detected that the Tulasi nursing home was functioning without valid registration. It was operating after changing its name from the Shah Nursing home that the administration had sealed in 2015.
"It is only by such crackdowns that the authorities can ensure that all health institutions follow the prescribed norms. This is in the interest of patients, who can be assured quality health care and not be cheated," said Buxi Bazar resident Sanjay Das.
The city has more than 250 nursing homes and nearly 300 pathological units functioning. A health department official said the raids were conducted at regular intervals to ensure that the health care institutions followed norms under the Orissa Clinical Establishment (Control and Regulation) Rule, 1994.
According to the norms, the owners of clinical establishments need to apply for renewal of licences at least one month before the expiry of their existing licence.
Kalyan mandaps
A joint squad of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation and police today sealed 10 kalyan mandaps and banquet halls operating without approvals and parking space.
The corporation's recovery officer Tilotma Sahu said 10 kalyan mandaps, including nine in the Lalbagh police limits and one under Bidanasi police jurisdiction, had been sealed in the first phase.
"Earlier, the joint squad had identified nearly 104 such public utilities operating without approvals and infrastructure and the process of sealing such units began today following a high court order," Sahu said.
