It is the responsibility of the State to provide universal healthcare to all patients coming to hospitals in accordance with constitutional provisions, Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal told Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia at a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority on Tuesday.
Raj Niwas stated that Mr. Baijal then added: “We are all Indians and Delhi belongs to all.” Mr. Baijal, chaired the meeting of DDMA with Mr. Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain and senior Delhi government officials.
Later in the day, the L-G called an all-party meeting, which as per a tweet by Mr. Baijal was “held in a constructive atmosphere where many constructive suggestions were made”.
After Mr. Sisodia told reporters that Mr. Baijal had said he had “no idea now” on how to arrange 80,000 beds for treatment of Delhi residents and outsiders — in relation to the reversal of the Delhi government’s order to reserve city hospitals for “bona fide” residents, the L-G’s office issued a statement.
“In the meeting, it was clarified… that the L-G had reversed the order of the Delhi government as it violated the constitutional rights of Equality and Right to Life, which include Right to Health. A similar directive by the Delhi government was stuck down by the High Court,” Raj Niwas stated.
“A committee under the chairmanship of the Divisional Commissioner has been constituted to explore the possibility of creation of additional bed capacity. It has suggested Pragati Maidan, Talkatora Indoor stadium, Thyagaraj Indoor stadium, Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Dhyanchand National Stadium etc. to be used as makeshift hospitals,” the statement read.
It added that the L-G directed the authorities to have “realistic projections” of requirement of physical infrastructure and human resources as the city ramps up medical capacity.
In the meeting, the Health Department said that as of June 8 the case fatality rate is 2.92% as compared to the national average of 2.81%. Meanwhile, recovery rate is 38%, doubling of cases stands at 12.6 days; and tests per million is 13,543 as compared to the national average of 3,531.
The L-G was also told that there are 8,821 hospital beds, 582 ICU beds, 468 ventilators beds and 3,590 oxygen-supported beds in dedicated COVID hospitals. IAS officers have been posted as administrative officers at the hospitals and that bed capacity is being increased by attaching hotels.
Mr. Baijal also directed all stakeholders to formulate containment zone strategies as per ICMR guidelines and instructed field officials to delineate sealed areas properly to ensure their effective management to contain the spread of infection in addition to taking lessons of best practices from other cities.
