Why Covid-19 patients who come in private vehicles are denied admission in hospitals, Gujarat HC asks govt

The question is based on complaints the bench has received

The Gujarat High Court has asked the state government to respond to complaints regarding criteria for picking up patients by emergency ambulance service, 108, and denying admission in designated coronavirus hospitals to those patients, however critical they are, who are brought in private vehicles. The court has ordered the government to respond by April 26.

The division bench of chief justice Vikram Nath and justice Bhargav Karia have sought these details in an order passed on Tuesday which was made public on Wednesday late in the night. The bench has sought details of registration of patients through the 108 service, the time taken to pick up the patients after registering the call and other modalities.

The order stated, "there are some complaints that seriousness of the patient is not a criterion for giving preference and it is only on the basis of first come first serve basis that under the present dispensation of 108 Ambulance, the patients are picked up."

Asking response from the government the order mentions that "only through ambulance 108, patients are admitted in the designated hospitals and further that 108 ambulance picks up patients only from home/residence but not from any Nursing Home or hospital if the patient is otherwise admitted and later turns into a Covid-19 patient."

It said that "Patients being brought in private cars howsoever critical they may be, are not admitted by the designated hospitals even though beds are available." As a matter of fact, there have been instances where patients went to these designated hospitals for treatment but were not registered as covid-19 patients.

These questions are based on complaints the bench has received. As a matter of fact, there have been complaints by many people who were denied beds after reaching hospitals directly. In one case at least, a patient was even denied a Covid-19 death certificate.

Meanwhile, Gujarat added 12,553 new positive cases on Wednesday while 125 more patients passed away due to the infection in 24 hours.

The total number of cases rose to over 4,40,731 cases while the death toll reached 5,740.

Surat topped with 29 deaths, followed by 23 in Ahmedabad, 12 each in Vadodara and Rajkot, eight in Jamnagar and 6 in Bhavnagar. In terms of the number of positive cases, Ahmedabad reported 4,821 cases, the highest in the state.