Mumbai: The Bombay High Court bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish Kulkarni on Wednesday pulled up the Maharashtra government and asked it to devise a proper formula for distributing Remdesivir to private hospitals across the state. The HC said the distribution shouldn't be on the basis of percentage of operational beds.
"We are told that the distribution formula devised by you (state) is presently based on the number of beds in use. This cannot be accepted," the bench told Akshay Shinde, the counsel appearing for the state.
"We clarified earlier as well that we don't want kin of patients running from pillar to post for anything. Thus, you must devise a formula wherein this drug is distributed based on the number of critical patients a hospital has," Chief Justice Datta said while ordering the state authorities to submit a proper affidavit on the next date of hearing along with the actual number of critical patients in the state.
The bench further noted that the oxygen requirement of the state has increased from 1,700 MT last week to 1,780 MT this week. It further took into account the fact that last week there were around 78,000 patients on oxygen supply while this week the numbers have gone down to 72,000.
"You (state) needed 1,500 MT when there were some seven lakh odd cases but today you have some four lakh cases and yet your demand has increased to 1,780 MT. We are unable to understand how you need more oxygen despite there been a decline in number of cases," CJ Datta said.
The bench further noted from the note submitted by Shinde that there has been an indiscriminate use of Remdesivir in private hospitals.
"On what grounds are you making these allegation? Do you have any document to substantiate your claims?" the chief justice sought to know.
The query received no response to which CJ Datta said, "Either submit some proper documentary evidence to back your statements or do not make such allegations against private hospitals. You must have at least the data of daily requirements of private hospitals and the supply by the nodal officer."
The judges accordingly suggested the state to rope in the association of hospitals etc to co-ordinate the distribution of Remdesivir in all private hospitals.
The judges further told the state to consider taking help from the technical experts from the railways to develop your dashboard in a way that it gives real time update on availability of beds.
While expressing dissatisfaction over the short note the state had filed on Wednesday the judges ordered the state government to file a proper detailed affidavit on the next date of hearing that would be on Tuesday.
