The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday said it was necessary for the State government to invoke provisions of the Disaster Management (DM) Act to deal with complaints of denial of admission of COVID-19 patients at private hospitals and to ensure initiation of penal action against them.
The government had, on July 15, issued a circular to private hospitals to display at the reception counter on the number of categories of beds for COVID-19 patients. The court said the government should modify this circular to direct the hospitals to display a specific telephone number to lodge complaints in case of denial of admission.
A special Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Alok Aradhe issued the direction while hearing PIL petitions on lapses in COVID-19 health management.
Pointing out that 20(f) of the DM Act empowered the State Executive Committee of the State Disaster Management Authority to ensure that persons in charge of private hospitals made available the relevant resources for emergency response, rescue and relief of the community. If the hospitals fail to adhere to such a directions issued under the DM Act, the State can initiate action, including penal action, against the persons in charge, the court observed.
The Bench also said that the team headed by an IAS officer set up to supervise bed allotment through the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike could also be asked to supervise allotment of beds in identified private hospitals.
Email and WhatsApp
Meanwhile, the government said that in addition the 1912 helpline to lodge complaints about non-availability of beds in hospitals, people can now lodge complaints via email β 1912covid19helpline@gmail.com β and WhatsApp β 91-94808 12450.
Of the 1,031 calls received on the 1912 helpline, 217 were related to bed enquiry and the health team ensured bed availability in 213 cases. The remaining were general enquiry calls.