CHENNAI: The Centre on Sunday assured the Madras High Court that all the required medical services will be available on Monday for handling emergency cases at the Jawaharlal Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry- on Monday until 2.30 pm in view of the half-day closure of the hospital.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) ARL Sundaresan made the submission before the first bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy when a public interest litigation petition filed by R Raja of Puducherry was taken up for hearing in a special sitting.
“Treatment got to be done on an emergent basis will be done. MRIs will be taken if have to be taken. Patients requiring immediate MRIs will not be sent back. All scan services, which are emergent, will be done. So far as planned surgeries are concerned, they will be rescheduled to next earliest slot, may be within a day or not,” he told the bench.
He also informed that all the patients, who were planned for surgeries, are intimated of the rescheduling of the surgeries and added that necessary workforce, will be on duty for attending to emergency cases. Moreover, the medical superintendents will be available for dealing with emergencies.
Sundaresan also stated that there are “no elective surgeries scheduled for Monday’.
Senior counsel G Prakash, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that if the scheduled surgeries are not performed in the morning of January 22, the patients will suffer and it will add to the existing huge backlog of cases in JIPMER where patients flock to not only from southern states but also from different places of the country.
He also stated that if out-patient department (OPD) is closed on Monday, it will put the patients, who would line up from early in the morning, to inconvenience and pointed out that specialised tests for cancer, thoracic surgeries and dialysis would get affected due to the half-day closure.
The bench recorded the submission of the ASG and disposed the petition.