Letter war: HC says consensus a must on health

New Delhi: In the backdrop of a terse exchange of letters between lieutenant governor VK Saxena and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on the state of govt hospitals in Delhi, the high court on Monday called for “consensus on health”, not “one-upmanship.”The bench of acting chief justice Manmohan and justice Manmeet PS Arora underlined that on health, “there should be consensus, no quibbling about it. Somehow, this issue will have to get resolved. All have to be on the same page on the issue of health.”The bench was hearing a suo motu matter concerning the non-availability of ICU beds and ventilators in govt hospitals in Delhi.The court said it did not wish to enter a blame game and added that there may be historical reasons why infrastructure has not been ramped up for 20-30 years. “If we are speaking in different voices” it will be “very difficult to deal with this humungous problem,” the court said.Pointing out the challenges in Delhi’s public health sector, the court stressed that “no one should try to pass the buck. Let's not try to belittle anyone in the process. It won’t help us. Let's meet the challenge head on and act as one. With 3 crore people looking up to us, we can’t say that there is some squabbling going on over here... We should not convey that impression, that there is a dissension within. We all are united in this.”It urged “all the parties to show a little maturity”, saying: “Let us not get into bylanes and try to show one-upmanship as it will not help anyone. You won’t be able to save lives in the process, so let's work in a united manner.”The court’s comments came after Delhi health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, who inspected several govt hospitals, said in a status report that whenever he called meetings with hospital staff, health secretary SB Deepak Kumar remained absent.Kumar, who was present in court, denied the allegations. “I have accompanied the minister to various hospitals and wherever I have not been able to go, I informed his OSD (Officer on Special Duty) and sent some other officials.... The minutes of the meetings will show my presence,” Kumar said.Last month, the court learnt that a man died after being denied treatment by three Delhi govt hospitals and a central govt facility on various pretexts, including non-availability of ICU/ventilator bed or CT scan.The man was taken to the Jag Pravesh Chandra Hospital from where a junior doctor took him to GTB Hospital, Lok Nayak Hospital and Centre’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, but he was refused admission and died.