Delhi HC Expresses Satisfaction Of Steps Taken By Delhi Govt To Ensure Access To COVID Treatment, Closes Suo Moto Matter

While disposing of the petition, a Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan noted that there's no reason for the court to further monitor this matter.

However, the court has provided liberty to individuals to move an appropriate forum in case they have any grievance regarding the violation of the guidelines issued by the government.

The order has come in a suo moto matter wherein the court had taken cognisance of problems faced by a person named Dharmendra Bharadwaj in getting his COVID19 positive mother hospitalised.

Today, the court took into consideration the status report submitted by the Delhi Government which had highlighted the following facts:

1. Apart from the centralised helpline, 50 more hunting lines have been operationalised for addressing the grievances of the people
2. The fleet of ambulances have been doubled and the current figure is a total of 602 ambulances. Out of these, 273 are dedicatedly for COVID patients.
3. Testing capacities have been increased to 22,000 tests a day
4. There are 12,000 vacant beds for COVID patients across the State
5. There's a buffer of Rapid Antigen testing kits
6. All government dispensaries have been directed to conduct free Rapid Antigen Testing
7. Private clinics are mandated to not to stop collecting testing samples from homes due to the capping of testing rates
8. Nodal officers have been appointed in all the government-run hospitals to ensure that data on the availability of beds is updated in real-time

Appearing for the Delhi Government, Mr Rahul Mehra further informed the court that apart from being the State with maximum testing numbers, Delhi has also become the first city in the world to have a plasma donation bank.

'Two of such plasma banks have been established in Delhi and 300 donations have been received so far', Mr Mehra submitted.

Mr Mehra also informed the court that nodal officers are directed to monitor the recovered patients and request them to submit their plasma after the completion of 28 days.

At this stage, Amicus Curiae Om Prakash informed the court that there are still issues with the real-time updating of data on the availability of beds.

Mr Prakash further informed the court about the case of a Supreme Court AOR who was denied admission to Apollo Hospital due to non-availability of beds.

Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan, who appeared for the Apollo Hospital, submitted that the concerned AOR Mr Das was offered a bed in the general ward but he refused to avail the same.

Mr Krishnan further informed the court that Nr Das was tested immediately and his report was provided to him on the same day.

'However, if there's any grievance, we want the same to be sent to us so that we can consider it', Mr Krishnan submitted.

While disposing of the matter, the court directed the Delhi Government to ensure that its directions are scrupulously followed by all the hospitals.