HC pulls up hospitals for misuse of ambulances

New Delhi, Jan 24 (UNI) The Delhi High Court today came down heavily on the state-owned hospitals in the Capital for allegedly misusing ambulances for private purposes.

A division bench of Justices Swatanter Kumar and H R Malhotra asked the Director General of Health Services of the Central Government and Director Health of Delhi Government to submit before the court the number of ambulances in each of the hospitals by January 29, the next date of hearing.

The Medical Superintendent of all the hospitals had been directed to state how many of them were used for private purposes.

On the last date of hearing the Court had asked the authorities to state the reasons for non-availability of sufficient number of ambulances in the hospitals and Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS).

The Director was directed to state the policy to regulate the private ambulance operators in the Capital, who were charging an exhorbitant price from the patients.

Counsel and Petitioner Varun Goswami submitted before the court that due to non-availability of government ambulances, the people were hiring private ambulances at a higher price.

The CATS has only 100 ambulances and many of them are not in operative stage, alleged Mr Goswami.

The number of ambulances did not increase to 425, despite an assurance by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, said Mr Goswami.

The Medical Superintendent of Safdarjung Hospital had been asked to clarify the allegations that ambulances had been misused by the staff for other purposes by January 15, the next date of hearing.

The Medical Superintendent of GTB Hospital was directed to state in affidavit the reasons for not wanting to have more ambulances for the patients.

UNI