The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to file an affidavit with details of the medical facilities, including ventilators, being provided in various medical colleges, especially the recently opened ones, and hospitals in all the districts of Uttar Pradesh. The court also asked how far these facilities meet the local needs of patients.
“The state should also disclose as to whether there is any regulatory mechanism under any statute or rules made thereunder or otherwise for regulating the functioning of private medical hospitals and clinics, especially with regard to the treatment meted out to the patients and the money charged for the services,” the court ordered.
The order was passed by a division bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Manjive Shukla on April 22 in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by the NGO ‘We the People’ in 2016 through its general secretary Prince Lenin. The PIL sought details of ventilators required in all government hospitals and medical universities in Lucknow. The petitioner also raised other treatment related issues.
The court directed to implead the Union of India through secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi, as an opposite party.
It also directed that a notice be served on SB Pandey, deputy solicitor general of India, to file a response with regard to the regulation of private medical hospitals and the need for any statute unless already available.
The court further directed that the state government’s affidavit shall also disclose how many specialised hospitals, such as super speciality hospitals on the lines of the Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences and the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow, have been opened or are proposed to be opened in other districts so that the patients are not compelled to rush to Lucknow.
“Why not decentralise this mechanism so that such hospitals are available in all the regions, if not in all districts, and are easily accessible to the residents of the adjoining districts. Whether skilled personnel are required for operating ventilators, are they available on recruitment being made, if not, the reasons therefore. How many recruitments for such skilled personnel have been made in the past 5 years?” the court directed.
It also asked, “The question of adequacy of salary being paid to the government doctors vis-a-vis what is being paid to similarly placed doctors in private hospitals will also fall for consideration as, after all, because of the low salary in the Government Hospitals many of them migrate to private hospitals thereby depriving the ordinary citizens of their valuable expertise and services. It is a question to be pondered by the Union of India and the state government as to how far it is reasonable and justified to club the doctors and other specialists with other cadres of the bureaucracy for determining their pay structure.
“The services rendered by the doctors is much more important than the services being rendered by other functionaries in the bureaucracy for obvious reasons as it is related to the very sustenance of a citizen and Right to Life,” the court observed.
“The endeavour should be to provide sufficient number of ventilators so that nobody suffers fatally on account of non provision of ventilators. The data does not dwell on this aspect, in fact, it appears that there is no mechanism in the State to ascertain as to what was the demand of ventilators in a particular hospital on a given day and how many ventilators were available for being provided. Unless that exercise is done, these data would be meaningless,” the court said.
“Whatever the resources of the state government, the primary allocation should be for health as it is a basic need for the very survival of a person. We, therefore, direct the state government to revisit the entire matter from the point of view of what we have stated hereinabove and not merely be satisfied by stating that whatever minimum norms prescribed by National Medical Commission, they are being fulfilled which as informed should be 10% to 15% of the total beds available in a hospital.”
The court said the question still remains as to how many patients visit a hospital on a given day, who may require the facility of a ventilator and if the hospitals are not able to provide such ventilators in adequate numbers on a given day then of what use are the numbers which have been placed “before us” and for that matter the norms of the National Medical Commission.
“We expect the state government to revisit the matter with sincereness, diligence and urgency expected of it as the object is to provide necessary medical facilities to the residents of the state in each hospital. The affidavit to be filed in this regard shall also disclose the percentage of the budget allocated for medical facilities in various hospitals throughout the state. The SGPGI, Lucknow and other autonomous hospitals, which are not directly under the control of the state government should also revisit the matter in the light of the aforesaid,” the court directed.
The court directed to list the case on May 25 among top 10 cases of the day and on the next date, fresh affidavits shall be filed by all the concerned opposite parties.
