Comprehensive National Level Plan Needed For COVID-19 Instead Of Piecemeal Measures : Plea By 2 Doctors In SC

The Supreme Court has been moved in an application by two doctors - Dr Sneh Jain & Dr. Hans Jain- for directions to the Government to expeditiously formulate a comprehensive 'National Plan' for disaster management under Section 11 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and S Ravindra Bhat on Wednesday clubbed the application along with the PILs seeking measures for providing adequate PPEs to health workers.

Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta, appearing for the applicants, submitted that "the national plan for fighting COVID-19 should be updated instead of taking piecemeal steps"

The applicants state the need for a plan which is 'tailor made' to meet the requirements of COVID-19,  based on all possible preventive and remedial steps so that the Health Care infrastructure of this Country does not collapse, in the event of a major outbreak.

"If one person fails, the whole group fails and thus the interpretation of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, state by state lends itself to being the weakest link in the chain. Hence, 'One Nation, One Plan' is imperative to ensure success", it is asserted.

It is cautioned that in the face of the acute shortage of proper PPEs, testing kits and other equipments, the poor co-ordination amongst different Ministries and Departments of the Centre and the governments of States and Union Territories besides the District Administration, coupled with the absence of a National Plan on Disaster Management, there will be a disastrous and steep rise in the rate of infection resulting in spiraling of mortality rate.

"...the implementation of measures such as COVID-19 regulations has been piecemeal, sporadic, slow and not uniform. Each State Government enacting independent and state specific measures clearly epitomises the phrase - 'Too many cooks spoil the broth'. All States came up with their own directions, orders, measures based on their respective analysis, which created complete chaos and confusion across the country. It is true that no response is a response in itself – when we leave the guidelines of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 to the interpretation of the states, we risk inaction, we risk losing time and we risk losing lives", it is warned.

It is averred that most of the Personal Protective Equipment is only being dispatched to doctors who are deployed in Covid Wards, or Intensive Care Units, and many junior or senior resident doctors have complained about the lack of equipment on account of which it has increasingly become difficult to not only treat the patients, but doctors also bear the risk of contracting the virus themselves.

Since there is no uniform action plan to address these contingencies, what is being witnessed is a "symptomatic treatment" of issues by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare which is unmindful of the fact that various hospitals in states are functioning in their limited capacity, and are operated on the basis of their own budgetary constraints, the application contends.

"Many doctors have to arrange for their own masks and Personal Protection Equipment or are forced to employ innovative techniques using plastic, helmets or raincoats while still being at the vanguard. The abovementioned cases were observed in two of the hospitals i.e. Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and Ram Manohar Lohia hospitals in Delhi and these illustrations were published in newspapers reports online", it is pointed out.

Accordingly, the applicants pray that an action plan for the Nation be formulated which shall include –

a. Measures outlining the mode of providing treatment, recalibration of spaces, resources, and setting up of dedicated wards not only for the treatment, but also for the general diagnosis of any person who is symptomatic but whose samples have not been taken

b. Measures to maintain constant supply of Personal Protection Equipment to even those doctors who are first in line of contact with a person who is asymptomatic.

c. To address issues qua shortage of Testing Kits, laboratories and to ensure testing kits are kept in reserve supplies and that the laboratories (including private laboratories and their staff) are well trained and equipped not only to conduct the tests but also to dispose of the samples so collected, since they are a bio hazard, capable of being spread at a sporadic rate.

d. To provide for a phase wise and step by step plan to contain the spread of infection at the hotspots where there is a community spread.

e. To take further intensive steps in case of severe spread of infection as are required, including testing, mobilization of resources, increasing of quarantine facilities, requisition of buildings, resources and people in exercise of powers under Section 65 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 for the purposes of immediately containing the spread of infection.  s.

f. To make adequate provisions for the setting up/ establishing of quarantine centers which are hygienic, and have provisions for essential items, such as food, water, toilets and bathing facilities and have provisions of running water supply and constant electricity.

g. To lay down an outline for measures to transport covid infected patients from smaller hospitals to larger hospitals and from one district to another, in the event of a mass outbreak.

i. To provide for measures to dispose of the dead bodies of patients who are infected with Covid 19 while ensuring due dignity.

j. To allocate enough resources and manpower for the development of treatment, research and development to find a cure to the disease, and to also permit or authorise the usage of drugs (with the consent of the patient) to be administered, which are currently undergoing the stage of approval but which promise to be effective in such treatments.

k. To ensure that there is a uniformity in the categories of resources, goods and services which are exempted from lockdown, and to provide for a time slot for the public to purchase these goods and avail the services by following the principles of social distancing, especially in those districts and Tehsils where there are no provisions for providing online or telephone home deliveries. 

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