Delhi High Court stays AAP govt decision to reserve 80% ICU beds for COVID-19 patients in private hospitals

File pic: Zee News

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday (September 22) stayed the AAP government's decision to reserve 80 percent ICU beds for coronavirus patients in 33 private hospitals.

The High Court observed that ICU beds cannot be reserved only for sickness, and said that the Delhi government's September 13 order is "arbitrary, unreasonable and violative of fundamental rights of citizens" guaranteed under the Constitution.

Hearing the petition of the Association for Health Care Providers, the High Court stayed the Delhi government's decision.

The bench of Justice Navin Chawla also issued notices and sought responses of the Delhi government and the Centre on a plea by 'Association of Healthcare Providers' to quash the order to reserve 80 percent ICU beds for COVID-19 patients.

Defending its decision in the court, the Delhi government said that it is only for 33 hospitals, and 20 percent ICU beds remain for the non-COVID-19 serious patients. It was done keeping in view the sudden spike in cases of the coronavirus virus, it said. 

Meanwhile, the Delhi government has decided to challenge the HC order staying reservation of 80% ICU beds for COVID patients in 33 private hospitals. The AAP-led dispensation is likely to challenge the court order on Wednesday.

A Delhi government official told PTI that it is extremely important to reserve ICU beds in private hospitals to deal with the rising coronavirus cases in the national capital.