If 50% ICU beds for Covid vacant, need immediate review of order: Delhi HC 

Court asks Delhi govt to reply before Dec 15 as private hospitals claim 2,360 beds are vacant 
If 50% ICU beds for Covid vacant, need immediate review of order: Delhi HC 

NEW DELHI:  The Delhi High Court said on Wednesday if around 50 per cent of the intensive care unit (ICU) beds reserved in private hospitals for Covid-19 patients are lying vacant, the decision to retain 80 per cent of ICU beds for coronavirus patients needs to be reviewed immediately.

The high court’s remark came on being apprised by the counsel for a private hospitals’ association that out of 5,081 ICU beds reserved for Covid-19 patients, 2,360 were vacant as on Tuesday and that there was no justification of continuation of the Delhi government’s September 12 order.

Justice Navin Chawla asked the Delhi government to consider the submissions by petitioner Association of Healthcare Providers and file its response before the next date on December 15. During the hearing, Delhi government additional standing counsel Sanjoy Ghose urged the court to take up the matter after 10 days as the Covid-19 situation was improving in the national capital and the government, which was monitoring it, will review the situation after that period.

He said a review has to be done on the continuation of the September 12 order by which 33 private hospitals were directed to reserve 80 per cent ICU beds for Covid-19 patients in Delhi and added that they were only going by precautionary measures. The submission was opposed by senior advocate Maninder Singh, representing Association of Healthcare Providers, saying it was only delaying tactics and the government would do nothing and there was no application of mind.

He referred to figures of bedsin private hospitals, as updated on the Delhi government’s website, and said out of a total of 1,527 Covid-19 ICU beds with ventilators and 3,554 Covid-19 beds without ventilators, 508 and 1,852  beds respectively were lying vacant as on December 8.

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