Delhi High Court Directs Insurance Companies To Communicate Their Approval To Hospitals Within 30 To 60 Minutes To Ensure Discharge Of COVID Patients In Time

Nupur Thapliyal

29 April 2021 6:28 AM GMT

  • Delhi High Court Directs Insurance Companies To Communicate Their Approval To Hospitals Within 30 To 60 Minutes To Ensure Discharge Of COVID Patients In Time

    The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued slew of directions on the availability of Remdesivir in an online portal, providing information on the availability of vacant beds capable of providing oxygen treatment and approval by insurance companies during discharge of covid 19 patients. A single judge bench comprising of Justice Pratibha M Singh issued directions in two petitions concerning...

    The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued slew of directions on the availability of Remdesivir in an online portal, providing information on the availability of vacant beds capable of providing oxygen treatment and approval by insurance companies during discharge of covid 19 patients.

    A single judge bench comprising of Justice Pratibha M Singh issued directions in two petitions concerning the non availability of Remdesivir and issues of the portal maintained by Government of NCT of Delhi with regards to the hospital admissions at www.delhifightscorona.in.

    Approval by Insurance companies during discharge of COVID-19 patients

    The Court directed Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) to issue immediate instructions to insurance companies/their agents to ensure that whenever requests are received for approval for discharge of patients who were affected by COVID-19 and are covered by insurance policies, no delay occurs in giving the approvals.

    Further directions are as follows:

    - Insurance companies/their agents be directed to communicate their approvals to the concerned hospitals/establishments within a maximum time period of 30 to 60 minutes, in order to ensure that the discharge of the patients is not delayed in any manner.

    - Once a patient is ready for discharge and while the attendant of the patient is waiting for the discharge slip to be processed, the hospitals/establishments can, instead of holding up the bed, process the new admission on that bed so that the bed does not remain unoccupied and needy patients are immediately given admission for their treatment.

    Shortage of Remdesivir and Online Portal

    During the course of hearing, the Court was apprised that out of the total available Remdesivir vials of 16, lakhs, 72,000 vials were allocated to Delhi from 21st April to 30th April 2021. Moreover, the Court was informed that there were total 7 manufacturers of Remdesivir however, none was located in Delhi.

    At this stage, the Special Secretary of GNCTD's Department of Health and Family Welfare apprised the Court that the number of vials procured were only 2500 and the remaining have been distributed through private channels to the patients or hospitals directly.

    In view of this, reliance was made on a fresh circular issued by the Delhi Government proposing to create a portal for the purpose of distribution of Remdesivir vials.

    "It is public knowledge that most government and private hospitals issue prescriptions to the patients and the attendants to the patients are left to arrange the medicine on their own. The situation is so alarming that family members of patients travel across the city repeatedly visiting distributors, chemists, stockists to obtain the medicine. This could also be leading to exposure of so many persons to the virus. As of last night, post the filing of the present writ petition, a circular/order has been issued to closely monitor the distribution of Remdesivir and for creation of a portal on real time basis." The Court observed at the outset.

    Observing that the portal is being developed, the Court directed that instead of routing all the drugs through the hospitals or other medical establishments, the patient/family member/attendant of the patient should be allowed to put in a request in the portal for obtaining the Remdesivir, along with the following details:

    - Name of the patient

    - Name of the hospital where the patient is admitted (prescription of the hospital would also be uploaded)

    - Covid-19 positive report

    - Aadhaar number of the patient (copy of Aadhar card be uploaded)

    - Name and mobile no. of the patient/family member/attendant who would be making the payment and taking delivery of the drug.

    At the outset, the Court however noted that it would consider whether a Committee needs to review the administrative protocol for administration of the said drug.

    Hospital Admissions and Availability of Oxygen Beds

    During the course of hearing, it was submitted by the petitioner before the Court that the GNCTD portal www.delhifightscorona.in could be misleading as the patients are unable to obtain admissions due to large number of people already being in queue for obtaining ICU admissions. Moreover, it was submitted that a proper distinction between various types of beds available in each hospital is made.

    "…it is clear that the portal is only providing two separate categories i.e., Covid-19 beds and Covid-19 ICU beds. This distinction could be confusing for the user inasmuch as some of the hospitals do not have oxygenated beds even in the Covid-19 beds category. It is a matter of common knowledge that most patients are isolating in their homes unless they suffer from comorbidities. Patients look for hospitals and like establishments primarily when the oxygen levels dip and therefore, having non-oxygenated beds for Covid-19 patients may not be of much use." The Court observed.

    Noting that it would be useful it the hospitals indicate as to whether the beds vacant are capable of providing oxygen treatment or not, the Court observed that the data on the portal has to be on "much more real time basis" which need to be updated every one or two hours.

    In view of this, the Court gave directions to the GNCTD to seek instructions on the aspect of amending the portal and also as to whether a helpline, which would ring on a rotational basis and can be manned even remotely by Nodal Officers who may be allocated to a hospital, can be made available in each of the hospitals.


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