Justice Chandrachud: We just want to contribute to the process and give suggestions. You have made your valid point on requirement of audit. We will go to Mehra on this.
Justice Chandrachud: They are at the end of their tethers. Calling them Corona Warriors, but they’re humans at the end of the day. Don’t take this in an adversarial stance. When we make these suggestions, the idea is not to tell you that you didn’t think of this.
Justice Chandrachud: How do we tap into this for the dealing of the possibility of a third wave. There is complete fatigue amongst the healthcare professionals. They have been at it since March 2020. We have to create spaces for existing body of health professionals.
Justice Chandrachud: Today, you have 1.5 lakh doctors who are waiting for NEET and have completed their courses. If you give them 5000, nobody will come serve. How do you make sure they come and help ? Likewise, 2.5 lakh nurses are trained and are sitting at home.
Justice Chandrachud: Input I got was that the entire guideline that can be provided can be done online. An Electronic ICU has been instituted in many parts of the country. There is no way we have the healthcare to meet the surge, we simply do not have it. But we have to plan.
Justice Chandrachud: This was an experiment done in Maharashtra. A task force of 10-12 doctors formed who communicated with the smallest hospitals in rural areas. I am not speaking off the cuff, I have talked to them.
#OxygenShortage #SupremeCourt
SG: That’s why I’ve asked for oxygen audit. We can have a model in Delhi first.
Justice Chandrachud: I was also reflecting on this, you have today the problem that in rural areas you have a rudimentary health infrastructure.
SG: The train can go to the nearest centre in the village. We have made COVID centres. Presume for the time being that we have allotted 500, then Telangana will have to do the mapping for requirements. Their own internal system for distribution.
SG: Justice Shah asked about rural areas. I talked to an officer, who said that when allocation takes place, it happens for rural areas also. If there is a sudden outburst and emergent need comes, and it’s not possible to transfer them to nearest Centres.
SG: We have a particular quantity of the resource and we will be augmenting. Process of augmentation is on. As of today we have a quantity which needs to be rationally allocated. The transporting happens in special tankers.