Hospital Bed Pilot: Health activists to challenge Delhi Govt order in HC

Ahead of the implementation of Delhi Government's pilot scheme of reserving 80% beds in Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital for city residents, healthcare experts and activists have started expressing their reservations. The Delhi Government, led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, had recently announced that residents of Delhi would be given preference in treatment in Delhi State Cancer Institute and Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital. 

In a statement, the government had said that out of the 17 registration counters, 13 would be for residents of Delhi, while four would be for patients from outside Delhi. "The identification of  residents would be done on the basis of voter identity card. They will be required to present a valid voter card for identification. Minors would have to present the voter identity cards of their parent", a government statement read. Under the pilot scheme, free medicines will not only be made available to Delhi residents but the facility of major medical tests will also be extended only to them. 

But the scheme has enraged healthcare experts and activists who allege that the measure is exclusionary and intends to divide people on the basis of regional boundaries. Talking to NewsClick, Ashok Agarwal, a veteran lawyer and health activist, said  the scheme would be detrimental for patients from outside Delhi. 

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"It is a stupid idea. The question needs to be viewed from several points and what the Constitution tells us about it. First, the Supreme Court, in its latest judgement, clearly mentioned that no Indian can be considered an outsider in Delhi, and that the Capital city’s character is different from rest of the states. Every citizen has a right on Delhi. Thus, by bringing such measures, you are altering its ‘national’ character. Importantly, the Supreme Court cited its previous order which said every person has a Right to Life and by denying treatment to any person, you are also depriving him/her of a fundamental right. In a country where 70% people live below the poverty line, such a measure is an insult to them. We will certainly challenge the scheme in the Delhi High Court", he said.

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Commenting on the political implications of the measure, Agarwal said, “The move will not be beneficial to the ruling party which is eyeing a consolidation of voters in its favour. The majority of people from other states who visit the national capital also have their relatives here. If the visiting person needs treatment and it is denied to him, how do you think their relatives, who are also voters, would respond?"

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Agarwal, who has been petitioning the courts for health reforms, said Delhi Government hospitals were poorly equipped and need more investment and a new law to cater patients. "The hospitals run by the state government do not have properly equipped Intensive Care Units (ICU). We also see that government hospital have been consistently dismantled only to enable private hospitals grow and prosper. We demand that health, which is under the state list, be brought within the ambit of concurrent list so that it can be turned into Right of Life,” the senior lawyer said. 

 Echoing similar sentiments, another health activist Indraneel Roy, said that reserving beds only for one state is certainly exclusionary and does not address the problem. He said, "Delhi does not need more big hospitals. The focus should be on strengthening primary healthcare in the state. The experiment of Mohalla Clinic may be short-term and immediate measure for the problem. We also do not know what has been its impact. Similarly,  the Mohalla Clinics need to be connected to the primary healthcare network to serve  patients more efficiently."