New Delhi, Sep 11 (IANS): The Delhi High Court on Friday sought response from city and the central governments on a PIL on the poor condition of government hospitals here and shortage of medical staff.

A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath also sought response from All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and commissioner health of East MCD.

The plea filed by Salek Chand Jain through advocate Anurag Dubey sought directions for government to take steps to fill the vacancies of medical staff and doctors in government hospitals. It also asked court to direct them to increase the number of beds in general and ICU wards and all provide all facilities.

Dubey told the court that the hospitals under the control of central or Delhi government or the MCDs have not been discharging their obligations and due to the negligence of the attending doctors and staff, patients are dying.

The petitioner said that he has been visiting the different government hospitals and found that there is shortage of medical equipments, staff and doctors and the patients are not attended to properly.

"In case, patient requires immediate treatment, the government hospitals do not have ventilators or oxyen masks. Only limited masks and vantilators are available on the hospitals and for immediate treatment. There is shortage of MRI, CT scan, X ray, ultrasound machine etc. Patient in critical coditions are made to wait for several months and the condition in the government hospitals is very critical," said the PIL.

There are 38 hospitals under the Delhi government out of which 11 hospitals do not have fire safety clearance.