List funds spent on health infra: High court to Delhi govt after man’s death

The court sought to know from the AAP government if it was diverting funds allocated to expand its hospitals for some other projects, including mohalla clinics

The Delhi high court on Monday directed the Delhi government to disclose the amount that it has spent in augmenting the national capital’s health infrastructure in the last five years, citing the death of a man who jumped from a moving police control room van and was refused treatment by four government hospitals last week.

Lamenting that the medical infrastructure is not keeping pace with the demand, the high court observed that most hospitals were “chock-a-block” and critical care patients were not being attended to due to shortage of beds and non-functioning and availability of necessary medical facilities. (HT Archive)

Lamenting that the medical infrastructure is not keeping pace with the demand, the high court observed that most hospitals were “chock-a-block” and critical care patients were not being attended to due to shortage of beds and non-functioning and availability of necessary medical facilities.

The court sought to know from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government if it was diverting the funds specifically allocated to expand its hospitals for some other projects, including mohalla clinics.

It observed that in terms of spending, the budget has not come down. “But has it been diverted to some other project of yours?... It should not happen like that. Have you created separate funds for mohalla clinics or have you diverted funds from the general medical infrastructure? Your percentage of spending may be the same from the budget, but if you are diverting funds from here to the mohalla clinic, then hospitals will not get augmented. See the problem that is today is that critical care patients are not getting admission then,” a bench, led by acting chief justice Manmohan, said to advocate Satyakam, who appeared for Delhi government.

“Infrastructure is not keeping pace with the demand... You have to ensure that beds are available in all districts,” the bench said to the Delhi government’s counsel.

The application stated that the man was refused admission by four hospitals due to non-availability of necessary facilities, including CT scan, ICU/ventilator beds and absence of communication network between the hospitals in the Capital.