Doctors who refuse to treat AIDS or HIV patients will have to face the music as the Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it has decided to take firm action against them.

The Centre said it has circulated directions to states for taking action against doctors and paramedical staff, in both government and private sector, for shunning AIDS or HIV patients.

The government's submission in the apex court comes in the backdrop of complaints highlighting the plight of patients who were denied treatment by doctors or paramedical staff both in private and government hospitals.

"It must be ensured that there is no discrimination or stigma to PLHA's (persons living with HIV or AIDS) at health care facilities otherwise. The cases of denial of services to positive patients should be viewed seriously and action initiated in all such cases," the Centre's office memorandum circulated among states and submitted in the apex court on Wednesday said.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices Ashok Bhan-P Sathasivam on the request of the Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam said it was approving the memorandum with a direction to the states to implement the same.

However, during the hearing on a plea related to the matter, the bench minced no words in expressing displeasure at the condition of hospitals and medicare in the country.

"In rural India, there is no doctor available. Even in a 50-bedded hospital not a single doctor is present. It's only on paper," the apex court said when the ASG tried to highlight various steps taken by the government to provide efficacious treatment to HIV/AIDS victims.

The apex court was not impressed when the counsel tried to reason that primary health centres (PHCs) were working very well in the rural areas of states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala [Images] and Tamil Nadu.

"Go to any government hospital in Delhi [Images]. Go to Bihar and UP and check," the bench told the ASG.

The government has also said that it intends to ban advertisements offering potential cure for HIV patients and take strict action against those professing such claims.

"Strict action must be taken on all irrational prescriptions of ART (antiretroviral treatment). All advertisements offering potential cure for HIV must be banned and such organisations should be dealt with strictly, as there is no proven cure available for HIV/AIDS so far," the Centre said.

Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss too had earlier expressed the Government's intention to take action against those professing cure for HIV/AIDS.

According to the Centre, "All doctors, nurses and hospital staff, whether in the public or private sector shall treat PLHAs in a professional and humane manner, treating them always with dignity and care. No doctor or nurse shall refuse to treat a PLHA on account of his/her positive status."

"In treating, a PLHA there shall be no discrimination or stigma whatsoever," the memorandum stated.

The Centre said that doctors in the private sector, in particular have been directed to familiarise themselves with National Aids Control Organisation's (NACO) protocols and policies with regard to the care and treatment, which are available on NACO's website.

This was done because the NACO approved ART (anti-retroviral treatment) have proven to be cost effective, safe and PLHAs have shown good response to these regimen, the Centre said.

According to the Centre, the Medical Council of India (MCI) and the consumer courts are to take a strict view of private practitioners who take advantage of the illiteracy and poverty to prescribe wrong or unnecessary drugs or charge exorbitant amounts from them.

It said that NACT which will act as a nodal agency for all States would file status reports every three months before the apex court on the steps being taken to combat the deadly menace of HIV/AIDS.

The Centre had filed the memorandum in the wake of plea filed by an NGO in the apex court complaining of lack of proper facilities in the country for 'efficacious treatment' of HIV/AIDS patients.