The High Court of Karnataka on Friday said the State government needs to examine setting up of a real-time digital information system on the availability of beds for COVID-19 patients in the State.
Pointing out that there appears to be a huge time gap in admission of a person to hospital after the outcome of the test results, besides delay in getting results of the swab sample, the court said that there is a need to have a rational procedure to be followed in every case.
A special Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar made these oral observations during the hearing of PIL petitions related to COVID-19 health facilities.
After perusing the documents submitted by the government on availability of beds in Bengaluru city, the testing protocol, Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on admission of positive patients, facilities in COVID Care Hospitals, and COVID Care Centres, the Bench pointed out that the documents do not throw light on time required to shift a COVID-19 patient to hospital after the test result.
While referring to the issue of delay in getting the test result, the Bench also pointed out that the delay may lead to spread of COVID-19 among the quarantined members of a family.
The swab test results of about 12 judicial officers, residing in the Judicial Officers Quarters at the National Games Village, are yet to be received even though samples were collected on July 4, the Bench pointed out.
However, the Bench made it clear that it was not going to supervise all these aspects but expects a rational system to be in place so that proper information and facility are available to citizens.
Meanwhile, the government told the Bench that show-cause notices have been issued to several hospitals in connection with the recent incident of death of a COVID-19 positive patient owing denial of admission by a hospital.