Plea in SC to nationalise health care facilities till Covid-19 is contained

The petition, filed by Delhi-based lawyer Amit Dwivedi claims that India does not have sufficient public healthcare infrastructure to combat the pandemic

A plea in the Supreme Court on Thursday asked to healthcare in the country to be nationalised till the coronavirus pandemic is contained, seeking the court to order the Centre, states and Union Territories, PTI reported. 

Delhi lawyer Amit Dwivedi's petition claimed that India does not have sufficient public healthcare infrastructure to combat the pandemic, has also sought a direction to all healthcare facilities, institutes, companies, and related entities to provide free of cost tests and treatment for coronavirus. it further states that the public health sector in India has remained in "shambles due to low budgetary allowances" but at the same time, the private health care sector has seen "tremendous growth". 

"India does not have sufficient public health care infrastructure to combat a pandemic like COVID-19 and as a last resort India needs to take help of private health care sector," the plea said. It said that globally it is being done and health care facilities have been nationalised till the containment of COVID-19.

"In this dire situation, it becomes the primary duty of Indian state to take control, temporarily nationalise, of all these private health care institutes and make them available at the service of common Indian, free of the cost, in order to contain the spread of deadly pandemic COVID-19 and provide the quality treatment and care," the plea said.

People maintain social distancing while standing in queues to buy essential items from shops at APMC market, during ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, in Navi Mumbai

It claimed that in the 2020-21 Budget, India chose to spend only 1.6 per cent, that is Rs 67,489 crore, of its total estimated budget expenditure on public health "which is not only very low in comparison to the average global public health expenditure but is minuscule even in comparison to the expenditure of low-income countries".

The petition comes a day after the top court directed that government and private labs should conduct coronavirus tests free of cost, observing they need to be philanthropic in the hour of national crisis. Private labs charge Rs 4,500 for screening and confirmation tests for COVID-19.

The health sector is facing the brunt of the outbreak as medical facilities exhaust their stocks to combat the deadly respiratory illness, which has claimed over 150 lives and infected over 5000 in India.