Ensure CT scan facility in all district hospitals: HC
Court’s directive to state govt comes after petitioners say RT-PCR tests have failed in many cases to detect Covid-19 but CT scan has been of help
DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand high court on Tuesday directed the state government to ensure CT scan facility in all district government hospitals amid reports that in the second Covid-19 wave, many cases are not getting detected in RT-PCR test but in CT scan.
The HC gave directions while hearing a bunch of PILs filed by Sachdanand Dabral, Dushyant Mainali, and Rajendra Arya related to issues regarding the fight against the pandemic in the state.
Dushyant Mainali gave a 51-page written submission to HC apprising it about the emerging Covid situation in the state and why CT scan (computerised tomography scan)facilities need to be increased in all the districts of the state. He said that in many cases it has been found that RT-PCR has failed to detect the coronavirus and that CT scan has helped in detection through the damage the virus has caused in the lungs of the infected person.
Mainali said the the hight court stated that as CT Scan is required in the detection of the new mutated virus, the state government is directed to increase the facility in district government hospitals. “This must be the first step to be taken,” the HC said.
Other directions issued by the HC included providing mobile testing facilities immediately in hills and interior areas of the state, increasing Covid dedicated hospitals, providing PPE and other safety gears to the employees’ hospitals, increasing Covid care centres immediately, establishing temporary hospitals, and purchasing a variety of testing kits available in the market as presently very less are there with the government, said Mainali
Sachdanand Dabral said the HC also directed that overcharging by private hospitals must be checked and action be taken if more money is charged. It also directed that state government must ensure 25% of beds in private hospitals are provided to BPL category, he said.
The HC also directed the state
government to publish data of available beds, empty beds, occupied beds, nearby Testing Centres and list of hospitals with online real-time data available to the public.
The HC has also directed the secretary, state health department, to submit the report about the number of beds, ICU beds, beds with ventilators and oxygen, test labs, private hospitals, Remdesivir injections available and steps taken for supply, PPE kits and safety gears available
and rate of its daily consumption, steps taken on suggestions made district monitoring committees constituted by the HC.
The court also directed the state government to place the points raised by the HC in its cabinet meeting scheduled on April 22 and file a report about the decisions taken and file report by May 5 about all steps taken in regard to the court directions. The court has fixed May 10 as the next date for hearing in the matter and directed the secretary state health department and secretary finance department to remain present in the hearing
On September 23 last, HC had directed the state government to appoint monitoring committees in all 13 districts of the state to check the condition of treatment facilities for Covid-19 patients in the hospitals, quarantine centres and Covid care centres.
The court had directed that these monitoring committees will apprise it about the situation in the state every week and regular hearings on Covid situation will be held on every Wednesday.
Uttarakhand has been witnessing a spike in Covid cases for last one week or so. On Monday state reported 2160 fresh cases, taking the state tally of Covid -19 cases to 1,26,193.
On Saturday the state had reported the highest daily cases2757-since the epidemic started in the state. Dehradun district has reported the maximum 41,903 Covid-19 positive cases so far followed by Haridwar (21764) and Nainital (15731).