The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a PIL and said the Court is not going to direct doctors on how they should regulate their duty.
After hearing the argument made by the petitioner, the division bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh observed that Allocation and Roster of Duties of doctors always been made according to the hierarchy, pressure of work they are dealing with, the efficiency of a particular doctor and on the basis of many other factors prevailing as per case and circumstances.
The present petition was filed by the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association, Aseemit Social Projects Foundation along with two other doctors through Advocates Sarthak Maggon and Upasana Chandrashekharan seeking direction for the streamlining of SOP for the allocation and utilization of healthcare workers and supporting staff in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The petitioner’s counsel submitted before the Court that there are some doctors who are doing four shifts and some are doing only one. There is some mismanagement. So, some guidelines can be made for the allocation of duty. There should be some central database in Delhi for all the healthcare workers including residents’ doctors.
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The counsel for National Medical Council had also appeared before the Court and submitted that any set allocation and roster of duty is not possible to make. The Courtdhas further observed that this it is not good to interfere in the doctors’ work. It is only adjudicatory process that contains “minimum discretion and maximum guidelines”. The doctors’ job is clearly not an adjudicatory process.
As the Court was going to dismiss the petition, the petitioner prayed for and Court has granted the permission to withdraw it.