HC allows Delhi govt move to reserve 80% ICU beds in 33 private hospitals

New Delhi: Two days after the Supreme Court declined to interfere in a Delhi High Court order staying the Delhi government's decision to reserve 80 per cent of ICU beds in 33 private hospitals in the city, a double bench of the Delhi High Court on Thursday allowed the state government to proceed with its direction and vacated the stay order of a single-judge bench till the next date of hearing.

During the hearing presided by a Division Bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad, the court came down heavily on the state government, asking whether a geographical mapping has been done in districts to gauge the extent of infection prevalent among people. "Have you done a mapping to determine the extent of Covid infection and then worked it out accordingly?" Justice Kohli asked.

"I heard petitioner, Rakesh Malhotra, who is a doctor himself, had to go and avail a bed all the way to Dwarka instead of where he lives in Central Delhi as the same wasn't there," Justice Kohli said.

Similarly, raising doubts over the justification behind choosing 33 private hospitals, Justice Prasad asked, "On what basis did you pick up the 33 hospitals? There has to be a rationale and you can't just randomly say that we are choosing 33 out of a total of 115 hospitals."

"The notification issued by you on September 22 is outdated and the ground reality in Delhi is far more different than it was before," Justice Kohli observed, adding, "The situation is much more critical now and the September notification cannot be the yardstick."

Further, the court asked the state government, represented by Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, "why can't the state spread reserved beds over all hospitals so that the percentage of reservation comes down?"

In his response, ASG Jain submitted the largest chunk of the ICU beds were available in these 33 hospitals, totaling 2,217, while there were 1,051 beds available in the remaining 82 hospitals.

ASJ Jain also submitted that the chosen hospitals also had ample space for segregation between COVID-19 ICU ward and non-COVID-19 ICU ward and were the preferred choice among patients. "In this situation where there are 8,000 cases every day, most of the patients lose their lives due to bed hunting in hospitals," he said.

However, opposing his submission, Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, on behalf of the Association of Healthcare Providers, argued that without the compulsion of this order, Covid patients are already being provided 60 to 70 per cent of beds while 50 to 55 per cent are required by non-Covid patients. "No emergency bed for critical treatment has ever been kept vacant anywhere," Singh argued.

When asked whether there were any nodal officers in each district, ASJ Jain said there are 33 such officers in each district who continuously coordinate with the hospitals and can monitor and implement directions according to the situation immediately.

"In the end, no person should be made to run from pillar to post in search of an ICU bed in the city," Justice Kohli noted.

While vacating the stay order, the court asked the Delhi government to file an additional affidavit with material records therein for perusal by a Single Judge bench which will now hear the matter on November 26.