Supreme Court Issues Notice On Nurses Association Plea Seeking Fresh Policy For Best Patient To Doctor/Nurse Ratio In Hospitals

A division Bench of Justices AS Bopanna and P Narasimha considered the matter.

The petition avers that the basis for filing the petition are the replies received from the respondents to the RTI applications filed by the Petitioner Organisation.

According to the plea, it has been submitted that the Quality Council of India had stated that they don't have any norms that specify ratio of nurse to patient and that no study or survey has been conducted to monitor the quality of nursing care, patient safety and patient satisfaction.

In this backdrop, the plea states that there is a need to constitute a committee to monitor the quality of patient care, patient safety and patient satisfaction, including an assessment of patient to doctor and patient to nurse ratio.

"That it is pertinent to mention herein that the Petitioner has not been able to gather documents that reveal that the best patient-nurse ratio is not been followed by hospitals accredited by Respondent no.1 and 2, as they are internal documents and placing such documents in a petition in like this would put the jobs of nurses at peril," the plea adds.

The petition has been filed by Indian Professional Nurses Association and moved through Advocates Robin Raju, Deepa Joseph and Blessan Mathews.

The matter will next come up on November 11.

Case Title: Indian Professional Nurses Association v. Quality Council of India & Ors | W.P.(C) No. 15/2022 PIL-W