The Delhi High Court in the case Court On Its Own Motion v. Union Of India observed and has expressed concern over lack of medical infrastructure in the national capital to treat critical care patients and asked the Delhi Government as to why the infrastructure is not keeping pace with the demand.
The Division bench comprising of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora in the case observed and has directed the Delhi Government to disclose the amount it has been spending on augmenting the health sector in the last five years.
In the present case, the court was dealing with the suo motu Public Interest Litigation, PIL initiated in the year 2017 concerning the issue of availability of ICU beds and ventilator facility in the government hospitals here.
The bench in the case observed and has directed the Delhi Government for filing the status report indicating as to how it plans to ensure that the medical infrastructure keeps pace with the city’s population.
Therefore, an application was filed by the Amicus Curiae, Advocate Ashok Aggarwal, wherein it highlighted the recent incident wherein a man, who was seriously injured after jumping from a moving PCR van, died after being refused medical treatment at four government hospitals, the two Delhi Government and two Central Government hospitals.
The court in the case asked the counsel appearing for Delhi Government that as to how it was possible that there is no bed available in four government hospitals.
The court also informed the counsel appearing for Delhi Government that the accident cases were granted admission in the nearest hospital…You create a portal but facilities are not available in 4 hospitals which includes two states, this means that there is shortage of beds overall and you need to ensure that at least in all districts beds are available at some place for accident victims. Accidents can happen anywhere.
Adding to it, the court stated that at times, budget sanctioned for healthcare augmentation gets diverted for other funds…Budget normally percentage wise might not have come down but has it been diverted to somewhere else? At times funds get diverted. Thus, what happens is that the hospitals are not getting augmented and some other project of yours is getting augmented and it should not happen like that…Problem today is that critical care patients are not getting attention. You will have to increase the budget.
It has also been directed by the said court that the Delhi Government to explore the feasibility of setting up a central portal indicating on a real time basis the number and nature of beds available in all hospitals in the city.
The bench in the case observed that the medical infrastructure in Delhi is inadequate and the number of hospital beds are insufficient.
The court while considering the facts and circumstances of the case directed the hospitals managed by the Central Government to operate a Control Room for providing the information about availability of beds with ventilator facilities, by notifying the phone numbers of Control Room through public notice in the print media and web portal.