Govt’s bed augmentation hit by O2 crisis, HC steps in
NEW DELHI: Even as Health Minister Health Minister Satyendar Jain told reporters that Covid beds in the city can only be increased in large numbers once the oxygen crisis the state is battling is averted, the Delhi High Court, in a marathon 4.5-hour hearing on Thursday stepped in and “nudged” the Centre to make sure enough beds are available in its hospitals across the city.
Jain also said around 800 ICU beds are likely to be added in central government hospitals soon, although his remarks came before the developments in the high court.
“We have also demanded that the Centre give us 7,000 beds for two weeks. So far, 2,000 beds have been given,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, senior advocate Rahul Mehra fought tooth and nail in court, seeking the beds in Central govt hospitals be made available to those in Delhi. When the official from the Centre said that beds were made available, Mehra pointed out that not all beds are the same and makeshift centres cannot be equated with hospital beds, ICU beds and ventilators — a point the court recorded.
The Centre informed the court through an affidavit that 4499 beds have been allocated by them but Mehra insisted that the city required over 7000 beds in view of the current Covid wave, as it now only has 2,900 Covid beds available with it. Mehra further submitted that in November last year when cases were 8000, they had around 4,132 beds available with them.
As of 11:59 pm on Thursday night, the city had 15 available ICU beds and just 2,127 ward beds for Covid patients with oxygen fast-depleting.
In addition to this, the high court also passed strict directions to the Delhi government, ordering it not to implement a directive asking labs to send Covid test results within 24-36 hours or face action. The bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said that it was unreasonable to impose such restrictions at such a time.
The division bench noted that as a result of aggressive testing, the labs have been flooded and are having to refuse patients which was leading to delayed testing and reporting of the deceased. “The infected person doesn’t isolate and hence spreads the infection,” the court remarked.
Such measures should be counterproductive and should not be implemented, the court said.
The bench, on an order passed by the Delhi government on providing testing reports within 36 hours, said, “You should not come up with such orders…”
On the oxygen crisis, health minister Jain said the Centre had increased allocation but oxygen was also needed for new COVID centres being operationalised in Delhi. Delhi and the Centre have for the past three days been at loggerheads over the correct way to calculate the city’s oxygen requirement.
Jain said hospitals in Delhi grappled with a shortage of oxygen the entire night. The supply had almost finished in some hospitals. Thereafter, small quantities of oxygen were distributed among hospitals, he said.
On Thursday morning, several small hospitals in Delhi struggled to replenish the oxygen supply for their patients, even as some big healthcare facilities received fresh stock overnight.