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Medical system in smaller cities, villages of UP is 'Ram bharose': Allahabad HC
The court made the observation while taking serious note of a patient having gone missing from the Meerut district hospital and later his body having been handled as an unidentified one
The Allahabad high court on Monday observed that the medical system of the state pertaining to smaller cities and villages was like the Hindi saying “Ram bharose” (at God’s mercy).
The court made the observation while taking serious note of a patient having gone missing from the Meerut district hospital and later his body having been handled as an unidentified one.
“If this is the state of affairs of treatment at medical college in the city like Meerut then the entire medical system of the State pertaining to the smaller cities and villages can only be taken to be like a famous Hindi saying ‘Ram Bharose,” the court said.
The court also said it was a case of “high degree carelessness”.
“A patient is admitted to the hospital in an absolute care of doctors and paramedical staff and if the doctors and paramedical staff adopt such casual approach and show carelessness in the performance of their duty, then it is a case of serious misconduct because it is something like playing with the lives of innocent people,” the court observed.
The bench comprising justice Siddhartha Varma and justice Ajit Kumar was hearing a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) on “conditions of quarantine centres and for providing better treatment to corona positives” in Uttar Pradesh.
The court directed the additional chief secretary (medical and health), Uttar Pradesh, to file an affidavit fixing responsibility in the matter.
At the previous hearing, the court had directed the state government counsel to apprise it how it was managing Covid hospitals, requirement of oxygen, beds and life-saving drugs and equipment in districts of Bahraich, Barabanki, Bijnor, Jaunpur and Shravasti.
The bench took the example of Bijnor district as a test case to assess the overall health care system in smaller cities and rural areas of the state. After going through Covid testing data related to Bijnor, the bench expressed its dissatisfaction over the number of tests conducted in Bijnor between March 31, 2021 and May 12 , 2021.
The bench said that in a population of 32 lakh, if testing is done of only 1200 persons per day, then the situation is not happy.
The manner in which the pandemic had hit the rural areas of the state, the district administration was required to have a robust way of conducting tests, the court said.
The bench directed the state government to immediately improve and increase the testing methods of the rural population and the population of small cities and towns and also provide sufficient health care infrastructure in such cities of the state.
The bench then said that we are under “serious threat of its third wave, hence, we need to vaccinate each and every individual in the country and we need to have an excellent medical infrastructure”.
After going through the details of the health infrastructure of five districts, the bench observed, “We have no hesitation in observing that health infrastructure is absolutely insufficient in city areas to meet the requirement of city population and in the rural areas the community health centres are virtually lacking in respect of life saving gadgets. In most of the districts, the Level-3 hospital facilities are not there.”
“…there has been no further increase in supply of life saving gadgets to district Bijnor since last one year and thus the situation has not improved at all in terms of health care in district Bijnor. These facts therefore, are quite opposed to the Government’s claim,” the bench added.
The bench then observed, “If we have to test 30% of the population i.e. almost 10 lacs in the rural areas of district Bijnor within three month’s time, then we will have to conduct 10,000 tests per day, but from the statement made by the district magistrate we do not see any such robust testing in near future in district Bijnor and condition in other four districts are also same. If this is the state of affairs of five districts, one can guess where we are leading people of this State to i.e. third wave of the pandemic.”
The bench then suggested that government may allow people who might like to buy the vaccines for the have-nots. Likewise, business houses which donate to various religious organizations may be asked to divert their funds to vaccines.
The bench also suggested government may take steps like waiver of intellectual property protection so that other manufacturers may produce vaccine.
“One cannot understand as to why the Government of ours, which is a welfare state is not trying to manufacture the vaccine itself on a large scale,” the bench observed.
HC for PGI-like facilities at 5 medical colleges in four months
The Allahabad high court on Monday said medical colleges in Prayagraj, Agra, Meerut, Kanpur and Gorakhpur should have enhanced facilities like the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) and emergency laws should be applied for the acquisition of land for them.
The court directed the state government to come up with a definite report by the next date of hearing as to how this upgradation of medical colleges shall be done in four months’ time. The court suggested that facilities at all hospitals and nursing homes in the state must be improved.
The court has fixed May 22 as the next date of hearing.
The bench comprising justice Siddhartha Varma and justice Ajit Kumar was hearing a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) on “conditions of quarantine centres and for providing better treatment to corona positives” in Uttar Pradesh.
“In these few months we have realized that in the manner it (medical infrastructure) stands today, it is very delicate, fragile and debilitated. When it cannot meet the medical requirements of our people in normal times then it definitely had to collapse in the face of the present pandemic,” the bench observed.
“In the State of Uttar Pradesh, we find that apart from various institutes like Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute and the Universities like the King George’s Medical University and Banaras Hindu University, we have five more medical colleges in Prayagraj, Agra, Meerut, Kanpur and Gorakhpur. These colleges should have enhanced facilities as are there with the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute within a period of four months. Emergency laws should be applied for the acquisition of land for them. Funds should be provided to them forthwith so that they graduate from a medical college to an institute of the standard of the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute. For this there should also be given a certain extent of autonomy,” it said.
