NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued a notice on a plea seeking to expedite the process for the appointment of doctors and paramedical staff at government hospitals across the national capital.
A bench of Justices D N Patel and Jyoti Singh sought response from Delhi government, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), Safdarjung Hospital, and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and posted the matter for hearing on January 12.
The court issued the notice after a PIL was filed seeking the immediate appointment of doctors and paramedical staff in government-run hospitals such as All India Institute of Medical Science, Safdarjung Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, etc., including local bodies and Mohalla clinics, on urgent basis against their sanctioned vacancies.
The petition was filed by Nand Kishore Garg through his counsel Shashank Deo Sudhi, The petitioner said that innocent and poor patients were being denied treatment in government-run hospitals due to acute shortage of doctors and paramedical staff, including misinformation about the availability of infrastructure.
The petition added that the respondents were criminally insensitive to the malafide practice of private hospitals which were “thriving on the pain and anguish of common people”.
“Private hospitals are charging exorbitant under the nose of government authorities. This is evident from the fact that the government of India has taken measures for capping the prices of essential medicines and medical devices. The private hospitals are unmindful of the said capping and charging exorbitantly from the patients in the garb of service charges and bed charges,” the petition said.