Provision Of Quality Medical Services Is Crucial For Health & Well-Being Of State: Delhi HC Constitutes A Committee Of Experts
The Delhi High Court constituted a committee of experts to make recommendations regarding infrastructure, medicines, and adequate manpower in the hospitals. It said that the provision of quality medical services is crucial for health and well-being of the State.
The Court had initiated suo-motu proceedings due to certain incidents reported from time to time that reflected an acute lack of medical services in Delhi.
Earlier on February 5, the Court had directed the Health Secretary to submit recommendations to improve health infrastructure across the State.
A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet P.S. Arora said, “Needless to state, the provision of quality medical services is crucial for the health and well being of any city and to ensure robust public health system is an obligation of the State under Article 47 read with Article 21 of the Constitution of India. This Court is of the view that huge investments along with structural reforms in the functioning of Government hospitals, without entering into a blame game, are the need of the hour to overcome years of neglect and apathy which can only be done if there is a consensus on measures to be adopted both in the short and long term. Since this field is an extremely specialized area that requires subject experience and domain knowledge, this Court deems it expedient to appoint a Committee of experts that shall consider the matter in detail and place their recommendation/report on record.”
The Bench also said that the authorities in whom the power is vested to run and administer and manage the hospitals in Delhi, are not on the same page.
Amicus Curiae Advocate Ashok Agarwal appeared on behalf of the petitioner while CGSC Kirtiman Singh appeared on behalf of the respondents.
In this case, the Court had made attempts to address the medical services’ issue in the State by way of various orders, however, not much progress was made. Tragic incidents were reported from time to time in the media and the most recent one being the tragic demise of a man who was denied medical treatment by three Delhi Government Hospitals and a Central Government Hospital.
The denial of treatment to the aforesaid man was on account of various reasons ranging from non-availability of ICU/Ventilators beds to non-functionality of CT scan machine. On February 5, the Health Minister (GNCTD) had filed a status report in which he admitted that there was acute shortage of doctors especially in specialities like Radiology, Medicine, Anesthesia, Surgical Super specialties, shortage of paramedics like OT/ICU Technicians, OT/ICU Assistants, Nurses, Pharmacists, shortage of medicines, non-availability of orthopedic implants, non-functional radiological equipments mainly due to difficulty in their maintenance.
The High Court in the above context observed, “… it is apparent that the infrastructure, (be it in the form of machines, medicines or manpower) is woefully inadequate at Delhi hospitals. With only six CT Scan machines being available in nineteen Delhi Government hospitals (which cater to a population in excess of three crores), the infrastructure needs to be ramped up manifold. After all in cases of emergencies like serious accident victims or strokes or heart attacks, there is no time to shift the patients to private clinics for scans. Without critical infrastructure being available at Delhi Government hospitals, the ‘golden hour’ of saving a life may be lost.”
Consequently, the Court constituted a Committee involving 6 expert members. It clarified that the Chairman of the Committee i.e., Dr. S.K. Sarin (Chancellor ILBS) may co-opt experts, as deemed fit. It further said that the Secretarial support to the Committee shall be provided by the Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department of GNCTD and that the Committee shall submit monthly reports to the court.
The terms of reference of the Committee were settled with the consent of parties in the following ways:
a) To suggest ways for the optimization of existing resources in the various Hospitals located in Delhi, which are either owned by the Government of NCT including Delhi Government autonomous hospitals or MCD.
b) To suggest ways and means to devise a mechanism for the establishment of a control room that will enable the provision of real time information concerning the availability of ICU / HDU beds in the various Hospitals and their timely availability for patients in need thereof.
c) To suggest ways and means to ensure the availability of infrastructure, medicines and adequate manpower in the Hospitals for operating / managing high end medical equipment / critical care units in the various Hospitals.
d) To suggest ways and means to maintain as functional high-end medical equipment in various Hospitals.
e) To suggest ways and means to reduce the stress on referral hospitals by strengthening the peripheral hospitals located in the various districts of Delhi.
f) To suggest an end-to-end mechanism for ensuring uninterrupted supply of medicines, injections and consumables in government hospitals.
g) To suggest mechanisms to immediately fill the vacant posts of specialists (teaching/non-teaching), medical officers and paramedics on contract basis, till regular incumbents join through UPSC/DSSSB.
h) To make any other recommendation that the Committee thinks is fit and proper for the purpose of improving the medical services provided by the hospitals in Delhi to the public at large.
“… the Committee must give primacy to the aspect of critical health care and should consider the suggestions given by the Health Minister (GNCTD), Health Secretary (GNCTD) and the learned Amicus Curiae. It is requested to prepare its interim report within four weeks and place the same on record so that this Court can consider the same and pass appropriate directions thereon. The Committee is further requested to make specific and concrete recommendations on the aforesaid various issues”, it added.
The Court, therefore, requested the Committee to make appropriately specific recommendations so that the same can be suitably considered by it while passing orders. It said that the Committee would also make concrete suggestion on how best to augment manpower and infrastructure even if the same has to be done only on an ad-hoc basis so that the requirements of the hospital are adequately met.
Accordingly, the Court issued necessary directions.
Cause Title- Court on its own motion v. Union of India and Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2024:DHC:1092-DB)
Appearance:
Petitioner: Amicus Curiae Advocate Ashok Agarwal, Advocates Ashna Khan, Kumar Utkarsh, and Manoj Kumar.
Respondents: CGSC Kirtiman Singh, SC Santosh Kr. Tripathi, ASC Satyakam, Standing Counsel Avnish Ahlawat, SC Ajjay Aroraa, Advocates Waize Ali Noor, Shreya V. Mehra, Vidhi Jain, Arun Panwar, Prashansa Sharma, Tania Ahlawat, Nitesh Kumar Singh, Laavanya Kaushik, Aliza Alam, Mohnish Sehrawat, Kapil Dutta, Vansh Luthra, and Ravinder Agarwal.