Imperative for private hospitals in Maharashtra to have oxygen plants: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court on Thursday said it was imperative for all private hospitals in Maharashtra to have their own oxygen plants to deal with the increasing cases of Covid19A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni said as the third wave is likely private hospitals must have their own oxygen plants to meet their own demandsNow that the third wave is likely why must private hospitals not be made to have their own oxygen plants At least to meet their own demands for active consumption Afterall they charge all patients the bench saidThe court referred to a newspaper report from Thursday morning according to which a private hospital in Sangli had set up its own oxygen supply to tackle the increasing cases of Covid19If a hospital in Sangli can do so why cant private hospitals in places such as Mumbai Nagpur Pune and Aurangabad set up their own oxygen plants it saidIt is high time It is imperative that they have their own plant What does the government feel about this the High Court asked the states counsel Advocate General AG Ashutosh KumbhakoniThe bench directed Kumbhakoni to inform the court by May 11 about how much area would a hospital require on average to set up an oxygen plant the likely expenses the nature of equipment required etcThe court was hearing a bunch of public interest litigations PILs on various issues pertaining to the Covid19 pandemicThe PILs cover issues such as the supply of oxygen medicines availability of hospital beds etc across the stateDuring the days hearing AG Kumbhakoni told the bench that Maharashtra was not getting adequate stock of Remdesivir from the Union governmentAs per the states data available on May 1 a total of 89000 vials of Remdesivir were to be supplied and seven private manufacturers identified by the Centre are supposed to send predecided units on a daily basis he saidAt least 51000 vials are needed in state every day but it was receiving only 35000 vials daily he saidWe dont want a tussle with the Centre We understand it is under pressure We are only bringing this to your notice Kumbhakoni told the courtThe state had directed all hospitals and Covid19 centres to use Remdesivir judiciously Kumbhakoni further said 1804 metric tonnes of oxygen had been allocated for Maharashtra and of this the state was manufacturing 1200 metric tonnes by itselfWe are only getting 600 metric tonnes from outside Kumbhakoni saidTo this the bench said while Maharashtra seemed to be faring better than other states in controlling the number of active infections supply of oxygen Remdesivir etc it must not lower its guard especially since a third wave of the pandemic seemed inevitableOther states are seeing deaths due to lack of oxygen We dont want to see a single death in Maharashtra on account of want of oxygen the High Court saidIn case the supply of 1804 metric tonnes does not increase in the future the authorities must ensure judicious use so that not a single person suffers due to lack of oxygen it saidThe bench also took cognisance of the alarming situation in Pune district and suggested that the municipal commissioner of Pune seek guidance from the commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC on containing the viral spreadIt suggested that all other districts with high number of active cases set up a meeting with the BMC commissioner through videoconferencing and follow the Mumbai modelIf Mumbai is regarded as a model by the Supreme Court for the country then it should be regarded as a model for other municipal corporations in our state the court said The bench also said that the state must consider the courts suggestion on taking aggressive measures including imposing a complete lockdown for a limited period in districts that were witnessing an exponential rise in infectionsHospitals and medical professionals must not insist on prescribing foreign drugs to treat Covid19 if medicines manufactured in India were cheaper more widely available and could be used as alternatives to treat the disease it saidThere is a discussion in the Supreme Court order on the medicines that are effective Why is there no advisory to this effect the court askedIf there is any entity which is making profit the Centre and the State need to put their foot down India is not a country where these multinational companies can make profit it saidThe High Court is likely to pass a detailed order with specific directions to the state and the Union governments later in the dayIt will continue hearing the PILs next on May 12This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever