Days after criticising the health authorities for the deplorable conditions at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital where almost 400 COVID-19 patients have died, the Gujarat High Court on Tuesday directed the State to form a committee of independent doctors to probe the conditions at the hospital.
A Division Bench also said the judges would like to pay a surprise visit to the hospital.
“The Superintendent of the Civil Hospital and other authorities of the Health Department shall keep themselves ready to find our presence one fine morning on a given day in the civil hospital. This would put an end to all the controversies with regard to the functioning of the civil hospital,” Justice J.B. Pardiwala said.
“We are still of the view that what has been stated in the letter addressed by the resident doctor should be probed by a committee that may be constituted by the State government. However, the committee members should be independent. They should not be government officers or in any way connected with the civil hospital,” the order said.
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The Division Bench rejected the government’s contention that the anonymous letter written by a resident doctor to the court based on which the court passed severe strictures should not be given any importance. “Although the State government claims that there is no substance in what has been stated by the resident doctor in the letter, we are of the view that it should not be overlooked or dismissed. We expected the State government to look into the contents of the letter very closely so as to take appropriate steps at the earliest, but it seems that the State government has dismissed it as rubbish,” the court said.
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The number of COVID-19 cases in the State jumped to 14,829, with 361 cases reported on Tuesday. The death toll increased to 915 with 27 deaths.
Interestingly, the State health department discontinued sharing details like city wise new cases and fatalities, number of patients on ventilator support and also city wise details of active cases and mortalities.
