What we do · Free of cost

Right to Health

Private hospitals and clinics that refuse treatment for want of a deposit, bill for what was never provided, withhold records, or hold patients over unpaid amounts.

How this works

Matters we take up

  • Treatment refused for want of an advance deposit
  • Emergency treatment denied or delayed
  • Billing for procedures, tests or medicines never provided
  • Medical records and discharge summaries withheld
  • Patients or bodies detained over unpaid amounts
  • Free-bed and EWS obligations of hospitals on concessional land
  • Charges above the rates notified for a scheme or package
  • Failure of the health authority to act on a complaint already made

A person seeking treatment is in no position to negotiate. That is precisely when a deposit is demanded before a patient is seen, a bill is presented for what was never provided, or records are withheld from the family that needs them.

Hospitals built on concessional public land carry obligations to treat patients free of charge, and those obligations are frequently unmet. They are enforceable, and we enforce them.

You tell us what happened. We take the matter up in writing with the health authority or regulator responsible for the institution, obtaining the underlying record where an authority will not explain a decision. Where the authority does not act, we go to court, and where the practice affects patients generally we pursue it as a public interest litigation.

We charge nothing for this and we accept no donations.

Has an institution acted against you?

Tell us what happened. There is no cost, no means test and no obligation.

Bring us a case

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