Make COVID treatment affordable for all, says Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court said on Friday that it is a world war against COVID-19, which needs government-public partnership to make COVID treatment affordable for the common people.

Emphasizing that right to health includes affordable treatment, a bench headed by justice Ashok Bhushan and comprising Justices R. Subhash Reddy and M.R. Shah said: "It cannot be disputed that for whatever reasons, treatment has become costlier and costlier and it is not affordable to the common people at all. Even if one survives from COVID-19, many times he is finished financially and economically."

The bench insisted that the State government and the local administration should ensure that a cap is fixed on the fees charged by the private hospitals, which can be in exercise of the powers under the Disaster Management Act.

"Due to the unprecedented pandemic, everybody in the world is suffering in one way or the other. It is a world war against COVID-19. Therefore, there should be government-public partnership to end the world war against COVID-19," said the top court.

The observation was made by the top court in a suomoto case for proper treatment of COVID-19 patients and dignified handling of dead bodies in the hospitals.

Citing that despite guidelines and SOPs, the pandemic has spread like wildfire, the top court said that every state must act vigilantly and work with the Centre harmoniously.

"It is time to rise to the occasion. Safety and health of the citizens must be the first priority, rather than any other considerations," observed the top court.

The court said that whenever direction is issued under the Disaster Management Act to the corporate hospitals/private hospitals to keep 50 per cent or any other percentage of free beds, it must be strictly complied to.

The bench said that COVID hospitals which have not obtained NOC from the fire department of the state should be asked to immediately apply for NOC.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, had submitted that the government has directed the states and UTs to update their respective local building by-laws, synchronizing them in the line of "Model Bill on maintenance of fire and emergency service, 2019", circulated by the Ministry of Home Affairs on September 16, 2019. (IANS)

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