New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday stated that it cannot establish a mechanism for allocating Covid-19 beds in hospitals across the Capital and left the decision-making on it to the hospitals and doctors themselves while also saying that beds for people like the President and the Prime Minister will have to be reserved and one "cannot have a grudge with that".
A division bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh was hearing a public interest litigation moved by one Delhi resident, Manjit Singh, seeking the instituting of a "fair and transparent mechanism'' in allocation of beds to Covid-19 patients across hospitals in the city.
The petition, filed by advocate Vivek Sood, further sought a setting up of a centralised government agency and help-desks outside every Covid hospital which will carry out the job of alloting beds to patients. In an earlier hearing, the court had issued notice in the matter.
During the hearing, Sood referred to the VIP booking of hospital beds which affect the allocation to patients. He also pointed to the fact that there was no mechanism available in order to provide a fair allocation of hospital beds.
In response, Justice Sanghi remarked, " Today the situation is not there because a lot of beds are available...assuming the situation were to become as bad as it was...the requirement of bed is 50,000 then the system which you are talking about is just numbers...if you are fortunate, you are at a hospital gate...the doctor sees who is the most deserving and says "okay you take the bed'".
However, advocate Sood however submitted that a help desk and a nodal officer should be appointed for this purpose. "There has to be some mechanism. Many people cannot use technology in Delhi," the counsel argued.
However, Justice Sanghi stated that doctors were already facing a lot of issues and it was a "crisis of scarcity". "In hospitals the situation is that if your oxygen level is not below a particular level, they don't take you," the court said, while adding that beds for the President and the Prime Minister will have to be kept reserved regardless.
The court further stated that hospitals have already been directed to furnish information with regard to the admission of patients after it had come to the court's notice that beds were being deliberately occupied and patients were not being discharged, in violation of the hospital norms.
The matter will next be taken up on May 24.