Examine decision to reserve ICU beds in pvt. hospitals for COVID, Delhi HC tells govt
Dec 24, 2020
New Delhi [India], December 25 : The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the Delhi government to examine its decision relating to reservation of Incentive Care Unit (ICU) beds in private hospitals for COVID-19 patients and place a report before it on December 28.
Hearing a plea by the Association of Healthcare Providers (India), challenging the Delhi government's instruction to private hospitals to reserve 80 per cent of the ICU beds for the COVID-19 patients, a single-judge bench of Justice Navin Chawla asked the government to consider the opinion of petitioner hospitals at the time of taking the decision.
"Continuation of the Delhi government order for reserving ICU beds in 33 private hospitals is inhumane... there is no need for reservation and in case, numbers increase, reservation of beds can be allowed again," said the court.
The Delhi government said that a committee has recommended reducing the reservation of ICU beds in 33 private hospitals from 80 per cent to 60 per cent. However, the executive decision on the basis of the recommendation is yet to be taken, the government said.
Meanwhile, the number of ICU beds for the COVID-19 patients in the government hospitals will continue to remain the same, the committee recommended.
Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain told the court that the petitioner submission would be placed before the government before taking the final decision. He also drew the attention of the court to a new strain of coronavirus saying that it is causing worry all over the world and now they can anticipate the situation.
"Regulation of the health sector is not nationalisation and during the pandemic time, a hospital cannot emphasise on commercial gain," he told the court.
The petitioner's lawyer, senior Advocate Maninder Singh, told the court that they had cooperated with the Delhi govt since November. He also apprised the court that as of today, 2,067 ICU beds are lying vacant in the national capital and called it inhuman to keep an ICU bed reserve and vacant when a non-COVID emergency patient is dying.
