New Delhi, Jun 25 (IANS): The Delhi High Court on Thursday while directing the Centre and Delhi government to act against hospitals that are not providing real-time updates on availability of beds for treating COVID-19 patients, remarked "Don't be shy in taking action".
"Be strict in your approach; don't be shy in taking action against the erring hospitals. Good work being carried out by the government and authorities shall not be washed away because of such instances," said a division bench of the court presided by Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan.
The remarks came after amicus curaie Om Prakash told the court that hospitals like Saroj Hospital, Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital, RML and Apollo are still not providing real time updates regarding the availability of beds for COVID-19 treatment.
Following which, the bench said that the communication gap between the government and hospitals should be reduced and asked the Delhi government to appoint "dedicated officials" to ensure there are no communication gaps.
The High Court also asked the Central government and Delhi government to be strict with officers deployed in COVID-19 hospitals. "If they (officers) are not obeying your order then everything will go in vain," the court observed.
During the hearing, the Delhi government informed the high court that nodal officers have been appointed in hospital and senior nursing officers have been appointed to 114 hospitals for monitoring the admissions of COVID patients.
"It is pertinent to mention that as on June 23, a total of 7,195 beds and 247 ventilators are vacant and ready to be used," Delhi government standing counsel Rahul Mehra said quoting the government's latest affidavit.
He added that the Kejriwal government has also passed an order directing all hospitals with 50 or more beds to install a display board at the entry gate communicating information regarding Delhi corona mobile app/website, the helpline number 1031 for registering complaints in case the hospital refuses to admit patients despite availability of beds and further to give certain basic information regarding COVID for the health and safety of the general public.
"All government hospitals are treating COVID patients free of cost and this facility is available to all persons belonging to different strata of society. Anyone who cannot afford to pay for COVID treatment can be admitted at the nearest government hospital free of charge," Mehra submitted on behalf of the Delhi government.
The submissions were made while the court was hearing suo motu petition where it had taken cognizance of a video of a Delhi resident sharing his plight after his COVID-19 positive mother was denied a bed and ventilator at a private hospital.