The Delhi High Court Tuesday asked the Centre to take up an exercise to improve infrastructure in hospitals run by it in the national capital, observing that “there is always a chance of improvement”. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Mini Pushkarna further asked the Delhi government to file an action-taken report on whether the recommendations of a committee constituted by it, aiming to enhance operational standards, sanitary conditions, and treatment methodologies ingovernment hospitals, are being implemented. The Centre’s counsel submitted that it has taken “all precautions and steps” for its four hospitals in the city, including AIIMS. The HC was hearing a 2017 suo motu plea initiated by it after it took cognizance of a newspaper report indicating how doctors at AIIMS were being trained in taekwondo in view of incidents of doctors in public hospitals being subjected to extreme violence at the hands of patients and/or their attendants. In a previous hearing, the HC had noted that the crux of the matter revolved around the “distressing surge in instances of violence against medical practitioners within public hospitals perpetrated by patients or their attendants”. It had thereafter said, “This concern was addressed in the order dated 03.05.2017, wherein the Court highlighted: (i) the dearth of adequate security measures afforded to doctors; and (ii) the incongruent growth of medical experts within hospitals compared to the escalating patient influx, which causes delays and exacerbates the likelihood of violence”.
