PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday directed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Care Commission (HCC) to regulate rates of public and private sector health facilities including laboratories.

The bench of PHC Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Ahmad Ali accepted a petition filed by Advocate Saifullah Muhib Kakakahel, who requested the court to issue directives to HCC to regulate the rates of public as well as private sector health facilities and also make it mandatory for private laboratories, clinics and hospitals to display their rates at visible place on their premises.

The petitioner also requested the court to direct HCC to take strict action against quackery.

During course of proceedings, the PHC chief justice expressed anguish over non-fixation of rates for private health facilities, observing when the government could fix prices of vegetables including tomatoes and potatoes then why it was hesitant to fix the same for laboratories and clinics.

Allows petition seeking directives for the commission

The PHC chief justice observed that it was an open secret that doctors running private clinics were conniving with private laboratories and were sending their patients to specific laboratories for medical tests while an employee of the doctor accompanied patients to ensure that they should not go to any other laboratory.

Same was the case with chemists as patients were sent to particular chemists for purchasing medicines, the bench observed.

Saifullah Muhib, known for public interest litigations, stated that HCC was constituted under the KP Health Care Commission Act, 2015, with several functions to perform and the law was applicable to all public and private sector health facilities.

However, he stated that the commission had never regulated the rates of laboratories of public and private sector which clearly portrayed that the officials concerned were least interested in performing their duty.

He pointed out that in a case filed by him earlier against dengue epidemic, it was directed by the high court to conduct tests of people at the lowest cost, but private laboratories charged patients exorbitant rates for dengue tests.

He added that in 2017, the court had ordered that both private and public sector should charge Rs350 for dengue test, but private laboratories had not been following the order.

A counsel appearing for HCC stated that the commission could only keep a check on public and private laboratories but had no power to fix rates for them.

The chief justice inquired that for what purpose the commission was established when it could not regulate rates of the health facilities.

He pointed out that under section 6 of KP Health Care Commission Act, 2015 those powers were given to the commission but it had confined itself only to issuance of certificates and no concrete steps had been taken to work on regulating the services provided by the public as well as private laboratories.

The preamble of the said Act was also read, which clearly states the intention of legislature.

The HCC’s counsel stated that as most of the private laboratories were operational in rented buildings, therefore, they had been charging more than public sector. He said that the commission had actively been taking action against quackery and had sealed several health facilities for substandard services.

An additional advocate general, Umer Farooq, contended that HCC was a regulatory authority and fixation of rates of health facilities was its responsibility.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2019