{"id":160477,"date":"2021-04-28T18:37:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T13:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/?p=160477"},"modified":"2021-11-16T19:34:32","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T14:04:32","slug":"delhis-covid-collapse-delhi-hc-looks-at-mohalla-clinics-army-deployment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/constitutional-law-news\/courts-news\/delhis-covid-collapse-delhi-hc-looks-at-mohalla-clinics-army-deployment\/","title":{"rendered":"Delhi’s Covid collapse: Delhi HC looks at mohalla clinics, army deployment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ILNS:<\/strong> As the Delhi High Court<\/a><\/strong> bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli continued its hearing of petitions from hospitals and on other issues regarding the shortage of beds, drugs, and oxygen supply, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, there were suggestions of the army being called out and to arm mohalla clinics with doctors, as the first line of defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Delhi lawyer Rahul Mehra suggested meetings every day to sort out issues. It was also suggested that NOCs (from TPAs and insurance companies) be expedited for discharged patients to make way for new patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


About the oxygen shortage, advocate Vineet Malhotra said that in the National Capital Region, there are small plants where one can get cylinders filled now. \u201cAfter yesterday\u2019s order, the police is after them.\u201d Then there was the issue of injections and drugs. \u201cPatients are not getting injections. It was mooted that a set maximum price may be prescribed. \u201cMilord I needed an injection for my Mom, but I got it for Rs 5 lakh in black. That is the fact,\u201d said Malhotra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Senior Advocate G. Tushar Rao said: \u201cThe Delhi Government has mohalla clinics. Would be a very good option for the first line where people may be checked whether they require hospitalisation.\u201d
Krishnan Venugopal, Senior Advocate, said: \u201cThe big problem in Delhi is it has become law of the jungle. People start to bribe people and somewhere one person brought a gun in Apollo hospital and fired. A very large number of beds are being cornered by people who do not even need them.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice Sanghi said: \u201cThis is not like that\u2026 doctors will not admit someone who don\u2019t need an ICU bed. How do we verify?\u201d
Venugopal said: \u201cIn this situation the army should be called in. As far back as 2008 they estimated 1,19,000 beds, but they now have seem to have only 54,000.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Justice Sanghi: \u201cWe wonder if the Delhi government can call for armed forces.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venugopal added: \u201cAfter the permission of the Central government. Today most of the ambulances are being used for cremation, and they keep standing at the crematoriums. Public places associated with crematoriums or other may be used for cremation. DTC buses may be used for taking the bodies to the crematoriums.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n


On the mohalla clinics, Mehra said: \u201cMohalla clinics are at small crowded places, would not be able handle so much of people. A central number like 101 (helpline) may do the needful. A large number of doctors may be called upon. Any doctor with an oximeter and thermometer can refer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice Sanghi: \u201cMr Mehra it is a very good suggestion, the doctors may be called upon.
Rahul Mehra: \u201cI will put it before the health secretary and get back tomorrow.\u201d
Venugopal: \u201cOn the point of the army, Mr Mehra May put it before the health secretary.\u201d
Justice Palli: \u201cMr Mehra you should explore.\u201d
Rahul Mehra: \u201cThere is DRDO and ITBP.\u201d
Rakesh Malhotra, petitioner, said: \u201cThere is an aircraft that can generate oxygen.\u201d
G Tushar Rao, Senior Advocate said: \u201cIt is the Tejas Aircraft that can make (a lot of) oxygen in minutes. The Medical Oxygen Plant (MOP) technology was developed for on\u2010board oxygen generation on the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas.\u201d
Senior Advocate Malvika Trivedi: \u201cIndividuals are not being considered for the cylinders and medicines.\u201d
Justice Sanghi: \u201cMr Rahul Mehra look into this, otherwise where would they go?\u201d
Mehra: \u201cWe are allowing them. We have asked them to bring Aadhar Card and prescription.\u201d
Malvika: \u201cThere were individual shops, now they are also denying. There is a shortage of beds, so people are being treated at home. What will they do?\u201d
Rahul Mehra: \u201cRajasthan government has taken over my friend\u2019s unit with excess capacity, now he is unable to help.\u201d
J Sanghi: \u201cI understand where you are coming from.\u201d
Mehra: \u201cThis is the fourth day, the problem remains the same people with excess supply are unable to help. A war room has to be set up.\u201d
Additional Secretary MHA, Piyush Goyal: \u201cMilord every state is facing the shortage.\u201d
Justice Palli: \u201cMr Goyal how many states are facing the problem like Delhi? You are not doing anything.\u201d
Justice Sanghi: \u201cToday you want oxygen from 2 states. You go through with the war room.\u201d
The discussions showed that there was hardly any source of oxygen from any other state. And tankers would take five days to fill. Justice Palli asked why, because this had to be done on a daily basis.
Justice Sanghi: \u201cMr Mehra, you have said that you have a buffer of 20 Metric Tonne?\u201d
Rahul Mehra: \u201cThis is for the SOS Situation.\u201d
Justice Sanghi: \u201cYou may keep 10MT and other can be used.\u201d
Justice Sanghi: \u201cHow many cylinders it can fill?\u201d
Rahul Mehra: \u201cUp to 100 cylinders.\u201d
J Sanghi then asked the refillers to come online. There were 192 participants.
The judge finds the refillers have not come, except one. The judge asked them to be present at the police station and said that the court was issuing warrants.
It was found that most of the refillers had actually run away when the court wanted them before it. Some had been persuaded to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Also: Delhi HC issues contempt notice to Delhi govt\u2019s oxygen suppliers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Naresh Gupta, a refiller, was asked why others did not come. Gupta said he will inform the others. It was stated that for refilling, hospitals will have to wait 4-5 hours, but individuals have to wait 10-12 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was decided that all refillers of Delhi will meet the chief secretary of the state in the evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawyer Rahul Mehra said that Mohalla clinics are in small crowded places would not be able to manage so many people. A large number of doctors may be called upon by a central helpline number like 101.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[246,58578],"tags":[89138,1377,92209,103913,6897],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/d2r2ijn7njrktv.cloudfront.net\/IL\/uploads\/2021\/01\/02145727\/Delhi-High-Court-on-Rose-Udaan-Care-Childrens-Home-case-min.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160477"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}