HC asks Delhi, centre to list hospitals to treat non-coronavirus patients

The Delhi High Court on Friday asked Centre and Delhi government to file a status report mentioning the list of hospitals where the outstation patients could receive treatment for ailments other than Covid-19, free-of-cost according to their eligibility.

A Division Bench of Justices Vipin Sangi and Yogesh Khanna also asked that report should also mention whether these patients could be provided treatment at AIIMS itself, as they were receiving earlier. The court said that status reports in these respects be filed by the respondents before the next date and listed the matter for further hearing on May 8.

The court was hearing public interest litigation filed by Karan Seth seeking to address the grievances of about hundred outstation patients and their attendants, who, it is stated, were earlier being provided treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi (AIIMS) for several ailments.

The petitioner's advocate Darpan Wadhwa submitted that due to the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic, AIIMS stands converted into an exclusive facility to treat Covid-19 patients. Consequently, these patients are not being provided with treatment at AIIMS any longer.

The second grievance that Advocate Wadhwa has raised is that these patients and their attendants are being housed in Rain Baseras opposite the AIIMS.

He submitted that many of these patients are suffering from serious ailments such as Cancer, and their natural immunity is low, and some of these patients run the risk of contracting the Covid-19 virus if they continue to live in such conditions.

Delhi Government has filed the status reports which disclose that the occupants of the Rain Baseras are in the process of being shifted to Gargi School Building, which is stated to be located in Green Park Extension and as against the capacity of 568 persons in 11 such tents, 255 persons were being sheltered.

On the other aspect of these patients receiving treatment, Anand Varma, who appears for AIIMS submits that the main AIIMS facility is not an exclusive Covid-19 facility, and the AIIMS continues to treat patients with other ailments. He submitted that he may be granted time to place on record a status report. He pointed out that about ten days back, a team of doctors from the AIIMS have visited the Rain Baseras and identified those patients who required hospitalisation, and two such patients were admitted in the concerned departments of the AIIMS.

The Court directed the petitioner to prepare a list of patients in respect of whom the present petition has been preferred. The list should include their name, age, the particular ailment that they are suffering from, and the ID number issued by AIIMS, or any other Government Hospital where they may have received treatment earlier.

The petitioner and others - who may accompany him, to prepare the list, shall be permitted to visit the Gargi School facility where these patients and attendants are being shifted today to be able to prepare the list.