'Healthcare In Uttar Pradesh At God's Mercy': Allahabad High Court On Medical Care In Rural Areas

The entire healthcare system in Uttar Pradesh is at the mercy of God, the Allahabad High Court said on Monday.

The court's observation came in the backdrop of a COVID patient who had gone allegedly missing from a district hospital in the Meerut district in April. The court had asked for a report on the matter, reported Live Law.

After hearing all the facts, the bench comprising of Justices Siddharth Varma and Ajit Kumar said, "The entire medical system of the State pertaining to the smaller cities and villages can only be taken to be like a famous Hindi saying 'Ram Bharose' (at the mercy of God)."

The court observed that the patients had collapsed in a restroom and was admitted to the hospital. "Efforts were made to revive him, however, he succumbed. The doctors and medical staff disposed of his body as an unidentified person," the court observed.

Taking note of the poor medical infrastructure in the state, the court noted that "it is very delicate, fragile and debilitated". The court added that the healthcare system in Uttar Pradesh, which could not fully serve people in normal times, is bound to fail in a pandemic like this.

The court also cited the example of western UP's Bijnor district where there is no level-3 hospital, there are only three government hospitals, and only five BIPAP machines are available, reported NDTV.

"If we take the population of rural areas to be 32 lakh since there are only 10 Community Health Centers or CHCs," the court said, adding that for every three lakh people, there is only one CHC.

"Only 17 oxygen concentrators are available with 250 oxygen cylinders against 300 beds. There is no description as to what the capacity of oxygen cylinders is and whether in CHC there are trained hands to operate these oxygen cylinders and concentrators," the court observed further.

Amid the raging pandemic, last week, nearly 100 bodies were found floating in the Ganga river, causing panic in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Many of them were decomposed and bloated. Soon, bodies were found floating in the river Ganga in Varanasi, and Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh and Arrah and Buxar in Bihar. The centre has told the UP government and the neighbouring Bihar to prevent such instances.

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