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HC seeks Chandigarh’s reply on Covid bed occupancy data
The high court has asked the UT administration’s to submit its response on sharing bed occupancy details latest by May 7
The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) on Tuesday has directed the Chandigarh administration to apprise the court by Friday as to why it is not putting out details of bed occupancy in the public domain.
During the resumed hearing of a plea initiated by the HC to monitor Covid-19 management by two states and Chandigarh, senior advocate Anupam Gupta had told the court that certain directions were issued by the Union home ministry on Covid-19 management, but it appears that UT has not implemented the same. As per the same, each state had to put out in public domain details of bed occupancy in government/private hospitals, availability of oxygen, drugs, vaccine and vaccination centres, remdesivir and tocilizumab.
The court was also told that availability of beds in various government and private hospitals is limited. As a result, some patients have to stay at home. In the eventuality of needing oxygen support, they have to purchase the same from the open market. However, it is not easily available.
UT’s senior standing counsel Pankaj Jain had assured the court that in case of any such problem, the SDM of the zone concerned in every sector shall be asked to step in to help the patients who are on oxygen support at home. One dedicated zone-wise phone line shall be allocated and widely publicised by way of broadcast on radio, television and assistance of telephone companies, he had said.
The court directed that SDMs be asked to pitch in to monitor the situation and in case there is disobedience of court orders, it would take punitive action.
The UT has also told the court that it has added 121 beds to its 692-capacity to deal with Covid and also sought 20 more ventilators from the Centre against the existing strength of 126. Current quota of oxygen to UT is 20 metric tonnes and Centre would be requested to increase it, in case more demand is reported, the court was told.
The report given before the HC reveals that in PGIMER Covid facility, there are only 77 patients from Chandigarh. Maximum number patients (104) are from Punjab, 59 from Haryana, 22 from Himachal Pradesh, 20 from Uttar Pradesh, 14 from Delhi and 19 patients from other places.
