The Delhi High Court on Friday sought detailed explanation from the city government regarding the steps taken to keep the families of the hospitalised COVID patients updated about their health status and treatment procedure .
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh granted Delhi government counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi's request seeking some more time to file reply to the petition that the NGO filed in this regard.
The bench later stated that the government’s affidavitis expected to take into into account all the steps taken by them in this regard andit should also contain the blue print of the future road map. The bench fixed the hearing to be conducted on August 31.
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The high court had on May 27 issued notice and sought responses of the Ministry of Health and Delhi government on the plea by NGO Manav Awaaj Trust which has contended that presently families only receive news about the death of a patient or demand for deposit of hospital charges.
It has said that providing the daily updates about patients' condition would "develop confidence and trust in the system of governance".
The NGO has sought a direction to the Delhi government "to frame a policy and/or guideline for communication of status report" every 24 hours to family or attendants of patients about their condition, treatment provided and details of attending doctors.
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It said the status reports can be communicated via WhatsApp, SMS, email or any other mode or an option can be given to family members or attendants to collect the report from the hospital daily at a specified time.
The NGO said there are no guidelines and/or directions to ensure that the attendant of a COVID-19 patient is updated about the condition or status of the patient regularly on a daily basis.
"The community at large is losing confidence, trust and faith in the working of the government and private hospitals in the absence of a system or machinery where the attendant is briefed or updated about treatment administered to the patient and actual status or condition of the patient thereof regularly on daily basis by hospital authorities.
"Only news reaching them is either of death of the patient or demand for the deposit of more fee. That the family members/attendants are time and again neglected by the hospitals, but for the clearance of bills," it said.
(With PTI Inputs)
