Delhi HC Wants Fresh Status Report on Condition of Government Hospitals

NEW DELHI:
Coming down heavily on the state government for poor infrastructure in five city hospitals, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked authorities to file a fresh status report giving details of the current situation of health facilities in the city. The direction came after it expressed dissatisfaction over a status report filed by the government on the condition of state-run hospitals in the national capital.
A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V Kameswar Rao also warned authorities concerned that if they failed to file comprehensive status report highlighting the actual condition, it would constitute a committee to conduct inspection and take stock of the situation in five government-run hospitals.
The court was hearing a plea by a school teacher whose nine-month-old unborn baby died in her womb, allegedly due to the lack of infrastructure at the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital in the national capital.
During the hearing, petitioner’s counsel Prashant Manchanda informed the court about the dilapidated condition of the government hospitals in the city. He told the court how the petitioner, Madhu Bala, had herself conducted a sting operation of the sorry state of affairs in five government hospitals, that included Deen Dayal Upadhayay Hospital, Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, GB Pant Hospital and LNJP Hospital, with the help of a news channel.
Dissatisfied with the status report, the high court asked the counsel for the Delhi government about the present situation of these hospitals. It said that the status report doesn’t address the concerns raised by the petitioner, and directed the authorities to file a fresh status report.
“The plight suffered by the petitioner depicts an extremely alarming concern with regards to the emergent issues in the government hospitals in Delhi. The status report filed by the respondents (Delhi government hospitals) doesn’t address the concerns raised by the petitioner. The respondents are directed to file an elaborate status report,” it said.
The court said the report would indicate details like steps taken to improve health facilities in Delhi and number of life-saving equipment and drugs available. It sought to know how many of these equipment are dysfunctional and what is being done to repair them. The court took note of the point that the MRI machine at the GB Pant Hospital is non-functional for the past two years and directed the hospital to file a counter-affidavit within a week to the registrar of the high court.
The matter would be now heard on January 25 next year.