C.H. SHARMA Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition raises several issues regarding the quality of the health care services being offered in the Government Medical Colleges, such as IGMC, Nagpur, GMC, Nagpur, GMC, Yeotmal and GMC Akola.

(2.) The grievance in general is that in all these Government Medical Colleges, there are not enough medical seats created for imparting medical education to the aspiring students, there are no proper equipments made available for taking care of the patients and also imparting education to the students, there is inadequate number of staff, there is lack of experts at the colleges and there is also paucity of funds for upgrading these colleges.

(3.) This Court has, from time to time, issued various directions to the State as well as Indian Medical Council and many of the directions have brought in fruitful results in these colleges benefiting patients and medical students across the region of Vidarbh. In spite of these measures having been taken so far, it appears, they are not enough to meet some new situations requiring special and concentrated response from the Government machinery. The latest situation is of the rise in number of patients afflicted with a novel corona (Covid-19) virus in Vidarbh. There have been various newspaper reports highlighting the rise in number of patients in Vidarbh region. The newspaper reports also point out lack of facilities at these hospitals and also private hospitals as also the Government machinery not being well equipped to create and maintain isolation wards. The newspapers reports indicate that some of the patients fled away from the isolation wards only because there were not enough facilities and proper conditions for these patients to feel secure there. These patients, as per newspaper reports, apprehended that although they had got themselves admitted in isolation wards as a precautionary measure, their said admission should not result into their getting infected with some other diseases just because facilities were not proper and there was lack of cleanliness and hygiene.