NHRC notice to Delhi govt, home secy in police constable COVID-19 death case

The NHRC has issued notices to the Delhi government and the Union home secretary over a compliant alleging negligence in treatment of a city police constable who eventually died due to coronavirus.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the National Human Rights Commission has also observed that the "incident also indicates that perhaps the hospital authorities are lacking in infrastructure and right approach to deal with the COVID-19 patients".

"The hospitals are required to tackle the situation very sensibly with a humane approach," it said.

The NHRC has issued notices to the Delhi chief secretary and the Union home secretary based on a complaint and a media report alleging "negligence in treatment" of the city police constable who died of coronavirus.

"They have been asked to submit a report within four weeks. It is expected to include the standard operating procedure (SOP) adopted by the hospitals for the COVID-19 patients and status of its implementation," it said.

Issuing the notices, the Commission has observed that the police personnel, doctors, paramedical staff of the hospitals who are frontline fighters to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The complainant has said that the deceased, aged 32 years, was taken to Deep Chand Bandhu Hospital by one of his colleagues where a test was conducted on him for COVID-19. He was not admitted in the hospital.

The constable later, complained of breathlessness and he was taken to RML Hospital, but he died on the way.

The Commission said it has also come across news reports regarding this incident, which claims the constable was taken to a COVID-19 centre at Haidarpur from where he was diverted to Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital.

The patient kept waiting for hours and then he was taken to Deep Chand Bandhu Hospital from where he was referred to a COVID-19 centre at Ashok Vihar where the doctors agreed to admit him on condition that he will have to manage everything on his own.

The colleague accompanying him told them that he is not even able to talk and will not be able to manage, the report said.

He was taken home and the matter was taken up with higher authorities of Delhi Police. Later, the patient was directed to be taken to the RML Hospital where he could not reach and died en route, it said.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the national capital on Tuesday mounted to 7,639, with 406 new cases, while the death toll mounted to 86.