The Directorate General of Health Services has informed the High Court that 12,543 private hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres have applied for renewal of their licences.

The government has lists of private healthcare facilities having licence, but it has no lists of those without a licence, the DGHS said in a statement submitted to the HC yesterday during the hearing of a writ petition.

Deputy Attorney General Amit Dasgupta placed the DGHS statement before the HC bench of Justice Tariq ul Hakim and Justice SM Kuddus Zaman during virtual hearing on the petition, filed by rights organisation Children's Charity Bangladesh Foundation, seeking necessary orders.

In the statement, the DGHS said the health ministry uploaded information of the number of Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 hospitals on its official website.

But the bench refused to continue holding the hearing and pass any order on the issue.

The bench dropped the petition from its cause list as petitioner's lawyers Abdul Halim and Ishrat Hasan and Deputy Attorney General Amit locked into heated arguments over uploading relevant information on the health ministry's website.

The judges said they would not hear the petition as the petitioner's lawyers and deputy attorney general had a quarrel.

The HC bench said the petitioner would have the liberty to move the petition before any other bench. During the hearing, the bench on August 31 wanted to know how many Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 hospitals were there in the country.

It also asked the authorities concerned to inform the court yesterday about how many private hospitals have licence and how many do not have.

On July 26, Children's Charity Bangladesh Foundation submitted the petition as a public interest litigation to the HC, seeking necessary orders on the authorities to stop irregularities in some hospitals, including Regent Hospital.

It sought HC directives on the authorities concerned to refund the money taken from patients who were cheated by Regent Hospital over Covid-19 testing and treatment.

The organisation requested the court to order the authorities to give Tk 25,000 as interim relief to each of the patients victimised by Regent Hospital.

In the petition, the rights body prayed to the HC to ask the health and home secretaries, DGHS director general and managing director of Regent Hospital to prepare a list of people who received fake reports from the hospital and to publish a list of the names of the hospitals and diagnostic centres that have legal licence to conduct Covid-19 tests.

The organisation also requested the court to direct the authorities to take necessary measures to monitor the activities of the hospitals and diagnostic centres at upazila level, regarding carrying out tests and treatment of patients.