A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Friday asked the State government to do the needful to ensure that all the government hospitals had sufficient stock of anti-rabies vaccines and other life-saving medicines.
The Bench comprising Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice P.R. Ramachandra Menon passed the order on a petition filed by High Court lawyer Basil Attipetty seeking to take action to tackle the stray dog menace in the State. The petitioner complained about the lack of anti-rabies medicines at government hospitals
The court orally observed that the lives of humans were more important than the welfare of stray dogs. It reminded the government that human lives were of utmost important.
When the petition came up for hearing, the Bench orally observed that it was the government’s duty to provide medicines at government hospitals. The court pointed out that there were reports of patients queuing up in large numbers in front of medical shops of hospitals to get medicine.
Besides, poor patients were forced to buy medicines at higher prices from private medical shops due to shortage of medicines in government hospitals, the court said. The shortage of medicines at hospitals had serious consequences as many diseases such as chikungunya and malaria were reportedly on the rise again.
