HC asks Delhi govt to act on bed shortage in its hospitals

The Delhi high court on Wednesday asked the Delhi government to act against the shortage of beds in hospitals run by it, and added that the infrastructure must keep up with the country’s population.

“What can the hospital do if bed isn’t available, they can’t put the patient on the floor… They’ll (Delhi government) have to do something… The action has to be taken by you (Delhi government). Set up your own hospital,” a bench led by acting chief justice Manmohan told advocate Satyakam who appeared for the Delhi government.

The court was taking a suo motu cognisance of a plea regarding the availability of intensive care unit (ICU) beds with ventilator facilities in government hospitals and functioning of emergency numbers. Notably, the high court in February 2019 had asked the Delhi government to consider providing at least 10 per cent of the total number of beds with ventilator facilities in all its hospitals to cater to the capital’s huge population.

In 2019, the Delhi government had told the Delhi high court that it had issued a reminder to all hospitals to submit an action-taken report on increasing the number of ventilators and ICU beds as well as operationalisation of all ventilators lying unused, repair of those that are non-functional and also to move a proposal for the procurement and enhancement of the existing capacity of ventilators/ICU beds. However, a report submitted by an expert committee in November this year said that nine hospitals run by the Delhi government do not have ICU facilities.

The panel, which was constituted to examine the status of ICU beds and ventilators in the city hospitals, had said that the ICUs remained a neglected unit in the government-run hospitals. They were part of the anaesthesia department, which had shortage of doctors.

On Wednesday, amicus curiae and advocate Ashok Agarwal drew the court’s attention to the incident of a 14-year-old girl who succumbed to blood cancer last week after she was allegedly refused treatment by three major government facilities — Delhi government’s Delhi State Cancer Institute as well as the Center-run Safdarjung hospital and All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The hospitals reportedly cited lack of medicines, beds, or equipment for their refusal. “95% of poor cancer patients in this country die because they are not given treatment,” advocate Agarwal said, adding that at least nine hospitals that are being run by the Delhi government do not have facilities of ICU beds.

Advocate Satyakam submitted that the health minister took cognisance of the situation and called for a high-level inquiry.