Court seeks report on dialysis facilities in Delhi hospitals

New Delhi, Jan 28 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Wednesday directed the Delhi government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to file a detailed status report on the lack of facilities, especially for dialysis, in government-run hospitals.A division bench headed by Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice Sanjeev Khanna expressed surprise when the MCD informed the court it had three machines for dialysis and the Delhi government admitted that it has 11 machines for the same purpose. The bench then asked them to file a detailed action-taken report within a week. Expressing surprise over the lack of medical facilities, the court asked the Delhi government what steps it has taken so far to treat the rising number of kidney patients in the capital. The government counsel submitted that it has passed a proposal for increasing the number of machines in the government hospitals in the capital. “The matter is of serious concern. Lakhs of kidney patients visit the capital every year and you have only these many machines to treat them,” said the court. The court was hearing a public interest petition filed by Salekh Chand Jain through his counsel Sugreev Dubey seeking direction to authorities to ensure availability of dialysis facilities. The petitioner alleged kidney patients in some areas of the city were not able get proper treatment due to the lack of medical equipments, including machines for dialysis, and the government had failed to take steps to provide adequate facilities. He contended that in some hospitals the dialysis machines were lying unused. There was no mechanism to improve their condition. As a result, poor patients were forced to go to expensive private hospitals. “At the moment the LNJP and GTB Hospitals have dialysis machines. While the LNJP hospital has seven machines, GTB has only four and surprisingly, in west Delhi, there is not a single government hospital which provides this facility,” says the petition.

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