A bench of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, while resuming hearing in the batch of Covid-19 PILs, came down heavily on the Health Department Secretary Syed Ali Murtaza Rizivi, who was present during the time of the hearing and asked if the price cap will be initiated after the pandemic is already over.
"It is high time the government moves with a sense of urgency because lives are being ripped at private hospitals and every single day counts now, " the court remarked.
Responding to the state's request of granting them 4 weeks time to communicate with the private hospitals before fixing the amount, the bench pointed out that it is unnecessary to extend the time when the government has already been given a month to finalize the ceiling for the fee for treating Covid-19 and Black Fungus patients in private hospitals, reports
The New Indian Express.
However, the court agreed to grant a two weeks time to the state while clarifying that no such extension will be provided to the state in the future and they must come up with a fresh GO fixing the price on June 23rd which is the next date of hearing.
Further cornering the Government, when the secretary stated that he would inform competent authorities about the direction of the court and would ensure that the capping GO gets issued immediately, the bench stated, "We are not interested in seeing the movement of your file. We want to see a copy of the GO."
Times of India reports that the bench also questioned if the government has confirmed that the private hostels which secured payments by incurring exorbitant charges from the patients have already initiated refund for the patients.
In response to the query, the Government informed the court that the private hospitals had already been asked to return Rs 65 lakh to the patients. The court then directed the government to accelerate the process and to ensure that all the patients who had been overcharged should get a refund at the earliest.
The health secretary also informed that efforts are being made to take the private hospitals into confidence. The authorities have already received representations from the associations of smaller hospitals. "We are yet to receive such a representation from corporate hospitals," Rizwi said.
The court also pulled up the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) for submitting an affidavit without mentioning why the covid-19 medication has not been brought under the National list of essential medicines. Rejecting the affidavit, the bench noted,
"Let the director of NPPA now file an affidavit explaining how he has risen to the occasion to ensure the inclusion of Covid-19 medicines in the list of essential drugs."
Meanwhile, the Director of Public Health Dr Srinivas Rao informed the court that out of the newly introduced 14 RT-PCR labs, eight labs have already started functioning and the rest of them will start working from Thursday.
According to the daily, the director also shed light on the fact that the state government has introduced additional 19 diagnostic labs to conduct the tests quickly and also to ensure all kinds of diagnostic services free of cost.
"We are gearing ourselves up for meeting the challenge that may come in form of the Covid third wave. Apart from Niloufer hospital, we are upgrading several hospitals in the state as children hospitals and more than 4,000 oxygen beds for kids are being made ready to meet any eventuality," Dr Srinivas Rao said.
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