 bill  no  xxiii of  2008 the compulsory medical treatment in emergency condition and to women in labour by private hospitals and medical practitioners bill, 2008 a billto provide for compulsory medical treatment in emergency medical condition and to women in labour by private hospitals and medical practitioners and matters connected therewith or incidental thereto be it enacted by parliament in the fifty-ninth year of the republic of india as follows:—1  (1) this act may be called the compulsory medical treatment in emergencycondition and to women in labour by private hospital and medical practitioners act, 2008short title, extent and commencement(2) it extends to the whole of india (3) it shall come into force with immediate effectdefinitions2  in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) "appropriate government" means in the case of a state, the government of that state and in all other cases, the central government;(b) "emergency medical condition" means a state of severe pain or suffering in which absence of medical treatment may cause serious injury to the body of a person or death of the person or the newborn child in case of a woman in labour;(c) "emergency medical treatment" means the appropriate action that is required to be taken after examination of the person to stabilise his/her condition;102 of 1956(d) "medical practitioner" means any person holding medical qualification recognized under the indian medical council act, 1956 and enrolled as such by the appropriate authority;(e) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act; (f) "private hospital" includes private nursing homes, medical institutions and clinics being run by a medical practitioner or a group of medical practitioners or a trust or society 3 (1) it shall be the duty of every private hospital and every medical practitioner to immediately provide emergency medical treatment to any person in an emergency condition or any woman in labour whenever such persons have come to or brought to the private hospital or medical practitionercompulsory medical aid to persons in emergency condition(2) the appropriate government shall ensure that no private hospital or medical practitioner refuses to provide emergency medical treatment to any person in emergency medical condition or a woman in labour by issuing appropriate directions in this regard4 (1) it shall be the duty of every private hospital and every medical practitioner to immediately conduct an initial examination of the person in emergency medical condition or the woman in labour and make all the efforts to stabilise the condition whenever any person in emergency medical condition or women in labour have come or have been brought to such hospital or medical practitionerhospital and private practitioner to conduct initial examination and to stabilise condition(2) the private hospital or the medical practitioners shall not transfer the person, if facilities for stabilization of the condition are available, till the time the condition of the person is stabilized, unless the risk of transfer is taken by the person himself5 if the private hospital or medical practitioner does not have the facilities to stabilize the condition of a person in emergency medical condition or woman in labour or does not have facilities to provide treatment, the person shall be immediately transferred to the nearest hospital or medical practitioner having such facilities after taking due precaution and consulting the private hospital to which the person is being transferredcondition under which the patient may be transferred to the nearest hospital6 every private hospital and medical practitioners shall keep a separate record of the emergency medical treatment given to persons in emergency medical condition or a women in labour in such form and manner as may be prescribedhospital or private practitioner to keep record reimbursement of expenses7 (1) the appropriate government shall, by notification in the official gazette, publisha scheme for reimbursement of the expenditure incurred by any private hospital or medical practitioner in providing emergency medical treatment(2) every private hospital or the medical practitioner providing emergency medicaltreatment to any person in emergency medical condition or woman in labour shall in such form and in such manner as provided in the scheme under sub section (1) send the claim forreimbursement of the expenditure incurred in this regard8 the central government shall, after due appropriation made in this behalf, providesuch sums of money as it may think fit for being utilized for the purposes of this actcentral govt to provide fundpenalty9 whoever, contravenes or attempts to contravene or abets the contravention of theprovisions of this act shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term, which may extend to two years or with fine, which may extend to five lakh rupees or with bothoffences by companies10 where a person committing a contravention of any of the provisions of this act or of any rule made thereunder is a company, every person who, at the time the contravention was committed, was in charge of, and was responsible to, the company for the conduct of business of the company as well as the company, shall be guilty of the contravention and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly:provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall render any such person liable to punishment, if he proves that the contravention took place without his knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent such contraventionexplanation—for the purpose of this section:—(i) "company" means anybody corporate and include a firm or other association of individuals; and(ii) "director", in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firmpower to remove difficulties11 if any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this act, the central government may, by order published in the official gazette, make such provisions not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as appear to it to be necessary or expedient for removing the difficulty:provided that no such orders shall be made after the expiry of the period of three years from the date of commencement of this actoverriding effect12 the provisions of this act shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of the provisions in any other law, for the time being in force, relating to medical treatment in emergency condition and woman in labourpower to make rules13 the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this act statement of objects and reasonsthe medical care system in our country besides not being very effective is also not widely spread coupled with this in effective medical care system, it is the indifferent attitude of the private hospitals and medical practitioners towards the persons in emergency medical condition and women in labour, which is causing death of many persons whose lives could be saved the private hospitals and medical practitioners just escape from their responsibility to provide immediate medical care to persons in emergency medical condition or women in labour mainly because of the fact that the persons would not be able to pay their dues this is against the ethics of the medical profession the first hour of a person in emergeny condition, be it due to accident or outburst of a disease is most crucial for his life and if proper medical aids is provided to him in that hour, his chances of survival increases tremendously similarly, many women and newly-born children die in our country for want of proper medical aid at appropriate time many private hospitals and medical practitioners receive a lot of  concessions from the government, but when it comes to serving the society in a little way they usually back track in a welfare state like ours, it is the responsibility of the government to come forward to provide medical help for the person in emergency condition and women in labour there should be a responsibility cast upon the private hospitals and medical practitioners to provide emergency medical treatment to the person in medical emergency and women in labour these hospitals and medical practitioners should not refuse treatment in such cases and must attempt to stabilize the condition of the person before transferring him to an appropriate hospital in order to encourage these hospitals and medical practitioners to help such persons, the government should bear the cost of the treatment given by them to the persons in emergency or women in labourthe bill seeks to achieve the above objectiveskalraj mishra financial memorandumclause 7 of the bill provides that the central government shall frame a scheme for the reimbursement of the expenditure incurred by any private hospital or medical practitioner in providing medical treatment in emergency condition or women in labour under this scheme, the central government shall reimburse the aforesaid amount clause 8 provides that the central government shall provide fund for the purpose of the bill it is estimated that a sum of rupees hundred crore would be involved as annual recurring expenditure from the consolidated fund of india no non-recurring expenditure is likely to be involved memorandum regarding delegated legislationclause 13 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill as the rules will relate to matters of details only, the delegation of legislative powers is of normal character———— a billto provide for compulsory medical treatment in emergency medical condition and to women in labour by private hospitals and medical practitioners and matters connected therewith or incidental thereto————(shri kalraj mishra, mp)gmgipmrnd—660rs(s5)—13-02-2009