Private hospitals are told to treat acid attack victims free of charge

India’s Supreme Court has asked the country’s private hospitals to provide free treatment to victims of acid attacks.

A bench made up of justices Madan B Lokur and Uday Umesh Lalit said that provisional figures showed that there were 309 acid attack cases in India in 2014. Most cases were reported in three states—Uttar Pradesh (185), Madhya Pradesh (53), and Gujarat (11)—while 27 cases were reported in Delhi. The justices were delivering an order in the case brought by a survivor of acid versus the government and others.1

The bench pointed out that the member secretary of the State Legal Services Authority should ensure that state governments complied with the instruction to provide each acid attack victim a minimum compensation of Rs300 000 (£3160; €4410; $4740).

The bench directed state governments or union territories in India to “seriously discuss” and “take up the matter” with all the private hospitals in their region to ensure that “private hospitals should not refuse treatment to victims of acid attack and that full treatment should be provided to such victims, including medicines, food, bedding, and reconstructive surgeries.”

Social health activists have welcomed the decision. Swapan Jana, secretary of the Kolkata based Society of Social Pharmacology, told The BMJ, “It will help relieve the pain and sufferings of the victims of acid attack to some extent. However, we also need to work on the psychological and social aspects of the survivors of acid attack.”

Shantanu Panja, chief consultant at the department of head and neck surgery at Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals in Kolkata, described the order as “a good initiative.” He said that the main problem faced by acid attack victims was that most needed prolonged treatment and multiple surgery, which put a heavy financial burden on people who were already traumatised.

Panja told The BMJ, “The approximate cost in any centre can vary depending on the duration of the treatment and the number of surgeries required. It can range from Rs50 000 to Rs100 000 and even more in some cases.”