Observing that the State government’s decision compelling citizens to be tested and treated for COVID-19 only at designated hospitals has no logical or legal basis, Telangana High Court on Wednesday said, adding that private hospitals and laboratories can treat patients and conduct tests, respectively.
Delivering verdict in a PIL petition, a bench of Justices M.S. Ramachandra Rao and K. Lakshman set aside a government order mandating that people should be tested and treated for novel coronavirus only at hospitals specified by it. Private hospitals and laboratories can secure approval from ICMR to treat and conduct tests, the order said. Those already having approval from ICMR can treat the patients.
The HC made it clear that citizens have the right to get tested and treated for COVID-19 at private hospitals of their choice if they can afford to bear the expenses. The only condition is that those hospitals and laboratories should have ICMR approval.
All other private hospitals and laboratories should apply to ICMR, which would constitute a panel of experts to examine if they have qualified doctors and staff along with infrastructure, for approval to treat coronavirus patients. Governments of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have already started relying on private sector to rein in the pandemic, the bench noted.
The bench said there was a government scheme called Aarogyasri run by Aarogyasri Health Care Trust facilitating medical treatment for the poor in private hospitals and the expenses are then reimbursed. The State government cannot forget that because of the inability of its hospitals to provide quality medical care to the poor that schemes like Aarogyasri had to be created, it said.
It was ironical that the government did not want people to be treated by private hospitals for coronavirus but permit poor people to avail private hospital services under Aarogyasri, the bench remarked. For a population of nearly 3.5 crore, it would be difficult for the State government to deal with the possible surge in coronavirus cases with fewer government hospitals and testing centres, the bench said.
Referring to cautions from some experts that statistics of coronavirus-positive cases would be misleading if inadequate tests were conducted, the bench said government cannot say private hospitals would indulge in indiscriminate testing if permitted to conduct diagnostic tests for the virus. Just as a coronavirus-positive person cannot hide his infection and endanger others’ lives, the government cannot conceal figures of infected persons and deaths due to the virus, it said.
