Delhi High Court orders govt to get more beds and ventilators for COVID-19 patients

In wake of increasing number of coronavirus cases and lack of available beds for patients, the Delhi High Courtordered the Delhi government to arrange more number of beds and ventilators in the hospitals.

"Considering the gravity of the situation, we hereby direct the respondents (Centre and Delhi government) to increase the number of the beds for COVID-19 patients and also try to increase the number of ventilators so that all COVID patients in need can get this facility," the court said.

A division bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan told the Arvind Kejriwal-led government tocorrectly upload the availability of "real-time bed capacity data". The court said this will help the patients to plan which hospital to first inquire, if they need a bed.

"We also direct the concerned respondent authorities to look into the suggestions given by the Delhi Medical Association (DMA) vide their press release dated 06.06.2020. These suggestions may also be kept in mind whenever the respondents are formulating their policy decisions," the order said.

The Delhi government has now released figures of the available beds and ventilators till June 09. According to these figures,9,179 beds were available for COVID-19 patients in the city and out of that 4,914 were occupied and remaining were available for the new patients.

A total of569 ventilators are also available, out of which 315 are being utilised and remaining are available, the state government reported.

"A suggestion has been given by Mridul Chakravarty, counsel for the petitioner and we also appreciate the suggestion that there are `ready to move in` government flats available in the city of Delhi, which may be utilised by the COVID hospitals for putting such infrastructure like beds, etc to accommodate COVID patients," the court added.

The Bench said they are hoping the Delhi government will comply to the guidelines and suggestions issued by the High Court. Thecounsel of the Delhi government assured the bench that the government was following all the guidelines, suggestions and intimations provided to the government by experts, court and theLieutenant Governor of Delhi.

(With inputs from ANI)