COVID19: Karnataka HC Directs Expert Committee To Supervise Hospitals

The Karnataka High Court has directed the State Level Expert Committee constituted as per directions of the Supreme Court to monitor/supervise,Covid-19 hospitals and facilities in the state, to submit its detailed protocol or standard operating procedure (SOP) which shall be followed to carry out its functions.

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar while hearing a batch of petitions regarding medical facilities for covid-19 patients in the state, said "Several aspects will have to be gone into by State level and other committees, such as availability of transportation, availability of treatment and medicine at hospitals, covid care centres. Maintenance of hygiene, quality of food served etc. It will be appropriate if the member secretary of the committee places on record the protocol which will be followed by it. The State level Committee can lay down protocol for other committees. So that there is uniformity in functioning."

The Supreme Court in its order of June 19 had directed states to constitute an expert committee of doctors to monitor the hospital and other facilities dealing with Covid-19 patients. The state government in its written submission informed the court that in the state level expert committee, President of a well-recognized NGO, constituted with the objective of developing community health; and (b) the Director of the International Institute of Information Technology, Bengaluru, a registered not-for-profit society funded jointly by the Government of Karnataka and the IT industry under a public private partnership model are added.

Death Certificate.

On the issue of cause of death being included in death certificate issued by the BBMP to relatives of covid-19 patients or suspected covid-19 patients, the bench said "The state government must issue clarification on the issue and ensure that the medical certificates issued as per Form 4 (Death in Hospital) or Form 4A (Death of a person at any other place) under the Karnataka Registration of Births and Deaths Rules, unnecessarily don't mention the fact that the deceased person was infected with Covid-19." The bench observed that "Why do you (state) want to maintain a record of people who died due to Covid-19, this aspect infringes the Right to Privacy," it said.

On the issue of facilities provided to Pourakarmikas:

Advocate Clifton Rozario informed the court that the BBMP is not conducting regular COVID-19 tests on the sanitation workers and even PPE kits are not provided. He claimed that on a visit to mustering centers it was found that only Rapid Antigen Tests were conducted on pourakarmikas and if they tested negative they immediately resumed duty. However, the counsel for the BBMP, refuted the claim and said both tests are being conducted on them to find if they are infected by the virus. The bench directed the BBMP to place on record details of test conducted-regular covid test and Rapid antigen test. Provide details of people tested positive on the next date of hearing, July 6.

The state government also directed the state government to consider whether it can increase the insurance amount for pourakarmikas and other sanitation workers on par with the Central Government scheme. Under the Central Government insurance scheme the workers are eligible for a cover of Rs 50 lakh while under the state insurance scheme the cover is for Rs 30 lakh. The bench said "The State must consider enhancing the amount under its scheme to Rs 50 lakh and make it on par with the Central Government scheme. State must expeditiously take a decision on this."

The court will continue hearing the matter on July 6.