Hospitals are not police stations, can't direct for CCTV cameras in every ward: SC

The Supreme Court on Friday said that hospitals are not police stations and it cannot direct for installing CCTV cameras in every ward of all the hospitals in the country as issues of privacy are also involved.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and BV Nagarathna dismissed a plea filed by an NGO ‘All India Consumer Protection and Action Committee’ and asked it to come up again with better and specific prayers.

“Hospitals are not police stations. We cannot direct the installation of CCTV cameras all over the hospitals in the whole of the country. There may be privacy issues. Suppose a woman is being operated on or for that matter any other patient is being operated on. This cannot be done. There is a patient privacy issue also involved,” the bench said.

The top court after perusing the PIL said, “problem with you people is that when you approach this court under Article 32, you try to make all sorts of prayers. See, you have asked that directions be issued to doctors all over the country to write prescriptions in the local language apart from English. Is this possible? Suppose the doctor does not know the local language or English then what would happen”.

The top court said that the petitioner wants reservations in hospital beds for economically weaker sections and other reliefs.

The bench, however, said that the petitioner has one prayer which may be considered like the Ayushman Bharat card shall be accepted in a private hospital. “You should come with this only prayer and we may look into it.

"This is an important issue and we may consider it. You withdraw this petition and file a plea with specific relief,” it said.

The petitioner has contended that many people have lost their lives due to the lack of adequate services provided by the hospitals and doctors during the second wave of the pandemic.