Justice Raheel Kamran Sheikh of the Lahore Excessive Court docket has dismissed petitions filed by Shaukat Khanum Memorial Most cancers Hospital and a number of other different personal healthcare establishments difficult the Punjab Healthcare Fee’s (PHC) authority to manage medical costs.
In an in depth 24-page judgment, Justice Sheikh dominated that the PHC possesses full authorized powers to find out and monitor costs for hospitals, laboratories, and different medical services throughout Punjab.
The courtroom noticed that healthcare providers aren’t strange commodities however important to human life. Justice Sheikh emphasised that below the Structure, the fitting to well being is integral to the elemental rights of life and human dignity. Each citizen, he wrote, is entitled to well timed, high quality, and inexpensive medical therapy, and it’s the state’s responsibility to make sure healthcare is accessible to all.
The judgment underscored that this duty extends to regulating personal healthcare establishments, noting that with out correct oversight, unregulated hospitals and laboratories might exploit sufferers.
The petitioners, together with Shaukat Khanum Memorial Belief, contended that the Punjab Healthcare Fee Act, 2010, solely requires hospitals to show their tariffs and doesn’t authorize the Fee to repair charges. They additional argued that the Punjab authorities lacks jurisdiction over establishments working throughout provinces and that the worth controls had been launched with out proof of overcharging.
Nevertheless, the Punjab authorities’s counsel maintained that well being falls throughout the provincial area, whereas the Fee’s lawyer asserted that worth regulation is essential to make sure high quality and stop exploitation—powers explicitly granted below the legislation. The courtroom agreed, stating that diagnostic laboratories are an integral a part of the healthcare system, and their worth regulation is legally justified.
Justice Sheikh concluded that such a regulation serves the general public curiosity by safeguarding residents from exploitation. Consequently, all petitions had been declared inadmissible and dismissed.
