Centre, State Don't Seem To Be Serious About Completing Digitization Of Medical Records Of Bhopal Gas Tragedy Patients: Madhya Pradesh HC

Noting that respondent authorities including–the Centre and State did not seem to be serious about completing digitization of medical records of Bhopal Gas Tragedy patients, the Jabalpur Bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court directed Union Health Secretary, the State's Chief Secretary and Director of Memorial Hospital Research Centre, Bhopal to finalise an action plan.

A division bench of Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Vivek Jain passed the order while hearing a writ petition filed by the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sangthan and other organizations, challenging the Central and State Governments' alleged failure to implement effective relief measures and provide adequate healthcare facilities to the victims, despite the Supreme Court's directions in 2012. The respondents in the plea are Union of India, Secretary Ministry of Chemical & Fertilizers, Secretary State of Madhya Pradesh–Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department, Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh, Chairman Indian Council of Medical Research, UPSC, Union of India through Secretary Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, National Information Centre through State Informatics Officer, AIIMS Bhopal.

"It seems that the respondents are not serious about the work to be completed. Accordingly, the Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and Chief Secretary, Madhya Pradesh along with Director, Memorial Hospital Research Centre, Bhopal shall sit together within one week and finalize the action plan so that the issue in the present petition can be executed in a timeline and expeditiously," the court said.

Listing the matter on February 18 the court directed the respondents to file day to day progress report of the first meeting.

The counsel for the respondents had filed a compliance affidavit in response to the court's December 9 order which had directed the respondents to place on record the timelines as well as procedure for digitization of the entire medical record of the patients.

During the hearing on Monday, the counsel for the respondents submitted, “We have mentioned in our affidavit, the records that is to be digitised basically pertains to the year prior to 2014 and which is very old. So these pages have to be very carefully scanned and only 3000 pages can be scanned per day. Now the records are of the patients who are 3,33,840 in number. And the pages run into more than 17 lakh pages. 3000 pages we have the capacity to scan every day. We are most respectfully submitting that we will take around 550 days to digitise the entire record. The tender has been floated and the work will start very soon.”

The court thus orally asked, “In this affidavit you say that the entire work will be completed in 12 months?” To this the counsel responded that the work will be completed in 550 days.

The court however said, “No. See Para 8 of the affidavit. Para 6 me 550. Yaha pe 12 months, kahi kuch, kahi kuch. (You claim something at one place, another thing at another place)” Counsel replied, “Sir, usko cloud me upload karne ke liye. (Sir, to upload in cloud)”

The court then said, “Isme ye bhi likha hai that work will be completed (It's also written in the affidavit that work will be completed)…however, exact time lines will be ascertainable only after the work is commenced.”

To this the counsel responded “My lord, as soon as it commences, we will immediately give the timeline. Your lordships may kindly bear with us for some time. We are committed to doing it.”

At this stage the court orally remarked, “Committed to do it? Aap to saalo saal ka le rhe ho ek project (You are taking years and years for one project)…Why don't you put extra manpower?”

The counsel replied, “Sir, inka capacity itna hi hai. Sir problem ye hai ki wo record bhot old hai aur fragile hai. Usko nikal ke scan karna…very carefully it has to be done because the papers are very old. So we are committed to doing it. We will do it. Your lordship may grant us some time. The contract has been given. Within a couple of weeks, we will place the timeline also.”

At this stage, the counsel for the petitioners said, “Sir, we had filed this petition in 1998. After 14 years, the Supreme Court had given specific directions. The computerisation was possible from that time and 2012, the Supreme Court gave specific directions for computerisation. They are not doing it deliberately. It is very strange. It is not that the technology was not available. It could have been done and the matter is 40 years old sir and if proper medical records have not been kept even after 40 years, what kind of treatment is being given to Gas victims?”

Thereafter, the court in its order noted that, pursuant to the court's December 9 order the respondents had filed a compliance affidavit as per which the medical records prior to 2014 are very old; thus only 3000 pages per day can be scanned.

The affidavit stated that it is estimated that the work will be completed in about 550 days, however, the exact time lines will be ascertainable only after the work is commenced.

The affidavit further stated that for establishing the cloud server under the e-hospital Project, a proposal has been obtained from the NIC and is pending for financial approval of Finance Department for which it is expected that the budget would be allocated in Financial Year 2025-26, thereafter the scanned record will be incorporated in the said server. According to the proposal given by the NIC, the entire work would be completed in 12 months.

Meanwhile during the heating the counsel for the monitoring committee said, “I am appearing for the monitoring committee which has filed its 21^st quarterly report. In the report, we have pointed out that we conducted inspection pursuant to Court's order and we have found that most of the specialist doctors are not appointed. The posts are vacant. We have filed details of all these vacancies. Plus there is enormous delay in treatment of cancer patients because of non-availability of funds and a person is asked to wait because there are others who are in a more critical condition. So the person who is relatively better off in condition becomes worse by the time his turn comes.”

For context, the Monitoring Committee was constituted at the directions of Supreme Court to oversee the implementation of relief measures to Bhopal Gas Tragedy victims.

Case Title: Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sangthan And Others Vs Union Of India And Others, WP No. 15658 of 2012

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