In a significant judgment, the High Court of Bombay recently ordered the State & BMC to consider getting private ambulances and use the cab aggregator, Uber to ferry patients during the Coronavirus pandemic to hospitals.
The High Court said that "Insufficiency or inadequacy of ambulance for transporting patients of either category, Covid & non-Covid, seems to have posed a significant challenge during these difficult times".
It added that "it is always open to the state to requisition certain vehicles & to keep it available for transporting patients to hospitals/care centers, whose physical condition may not require an ambulance."
The direction was given while recently disposing a clutch of 8 PIL filed by NGOs & activists who sought judicial intervention on deteriorating healthcare services & hardships faced by patients due to the lockdown.
HC bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta & Justice Amjad Sayed had dealt with a slew of issues before saying, "as submitted by Mumbai’s civic counsel Anil Sakhare
Uber services can be utilized, to take care of a part of the problem -- of locating & requisitioning ambulances".
Advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni said out of 79 labs, 44 are run by state & provide free testing & said criteria for setting up labs depends on cases in that district. The HC also expressing its "anxiety" had directed state to "strictly in consonance with ICMR guidelines "waste no time in setting up” testing laboratories in each district, if such facility is required.
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