The Delhi High Court has criticised the Delhi Government for its lackadaisical approach in development of Super Specialty Facilities at Indira Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, Dwarka.
“You are shirking from your responsibility of developing a super specialty hospital… People of Delhi need medical support. It is not enough. The infrastructure is not adequate,” underscored the Division Bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Jasmeet Singh on Wednesday.
The Bench was perusing the affidavit filed by the Government, in compliance of the earlier order, wherein the state was directed to indicate a definite timeline for completion of the said hospital, which should be adhered to.
The Delhi Government, in its affidavit, failed to indicate a definite timeline and submitted, “Since the hospital has been designated as a Covid hospital, these facilities have not been planned to be started as of now. When the hospital will be declared as non-Covid hospital, necessary arrangements to start the super specialty facility will be considered.”
It was further submitted that setting-up a Medical College as well as the Mother and Child facility are part of Phase-II of the project, which is still at planning stage and hence, it would be difficult to give a firm timeline for Phase-II, as well as rest of the Phase-I at this stage.
Dwarka Court Bar Association President Advocate YP Singh submitted that despite clear directions from the court, the Government has not come to court with clean hands and was misleading the court.
The Bench was not pleased with the averments made by the State and observed that even Covid patients require Super Speciality Facilities.
“It is not rocket science that you want to first run the Covid facility and see what can be learnt from it. A covid facility doesn’t mean just oxygen and beds, it also means other specialties,” it observed.
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The Bench directed the state to file another affidavit disclosing the super specialties, which have been conceptualised to be catered to by the said hospital. In addition, the Government was also directed to indicate the timeline within which other facilities, including the Medical College and Mother & Child facility, forming Phase II of the project, are planned to be set up and operationalised.
Earlier, the bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli, which was hearing Covid-related issues of the Capital on a day-to-day basis while there was a surge in COVID-19 cases, was informed by Mr Singh that the Delhi government-run hospital at Dwarka, which started functioning in early May this year, was not yet fully functional, and whatever facility was there, it was not equipped to deal with emergency situations.