Lucknow: Allahabad High Court’s Lucknow bench has directed UP govt to prepare a roadmap to strengthen medical facilities in newly opened medical colleges and prevent critically ill patients from being shuttled between hospitals.A bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Manjive Shukla directed additional chief secretary, medical health and family welfare, to place the roadmap before it, covering both immediate and long-term measures.The court also sought details of the proportion of the state budget allocated for medical facilities and services.The directions came while hearing a PIL filed by Ashutosh Kumar Singh concerning the death of a newborn who was brought from Sultanpur to Lucknow for treatment and subsequently taken to KGMU, RMLIMS and SGPGI.The bench has fixed the next hearing on Oct 1, directing additional chief secretary, Medical Education, and doctors familiar with the case from KGMU, SGPGI and RMLIMS to join the court proceedings through video conferencing.The bench said the case raised larger issues beyond why adequate treatment and care could not be provided to the child.The court noted that the child was suffering from an ailment requiring immediate attention. Even if the child had to be shifted from Sultanpur to a referral hospital in Lucknow, the ambulance should have been equipped with the necessary facilities.The bench also highlighted the need for qualified personnel to guide patients and their attendants in major govt hospitals.The court also suggested an online referral mechanism under which a referring hospital would first ascertain whether the required bed and facilities were available or not to prevent valuable time being lost in transportation and repeated visits to hospitals.The bench directed state govt to conduct a fair inquiry into the incident and submit its report within 15 days.It said that if the inquiry found lapses, it would consider fixing accountability and granting compensation to the family for any negligence on the part of the state or other authorities. The court also directed that the family’s version be recorded.
