HC seeks Delhi govt stand on capping price of HRCT tests for COVID-19

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday (May 3) issued a notice to the AAP Govt on a PIL seeking direction to cap the price of High-Resolution Computerised Tomography (HRCT) scan/test which is nowadays massively recommended to people having symptoms of COVID-19.

The PIL urged the High Court to direct the Delhi government to cap the price of High-Resolution Computerised Tomography (HRCT) which is used for detecting the presence and severity of COVID-19 infection in the lungs of patients.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh issued notice to the Delhi government and sought its stand on the plea. The petition was filed by Shivleen Pasricha, a lawyer, who has claimed that for detection of COVID-19 amongst suspected/ probable patients, the most widely recommended test is RT-PCR.

The petition, filed through advocate Amresh Anand, said, "At present, the price for getting HRCT done in Delhi is somewhere between Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,500. As such, regulation of price of the same has become the need of an hour," adding "That in light of the present gruesome circumstances in Delhi, regulating the price of HRCT, becomes all imperative and necessary." 

According to the petition, the cost of HRCT in the national capital is "unregulated and very high" beyond what a common man can afford. It has further claimed that HRCT has, in the current state of circumstances, become one of the most relevant and vital tests, recommended actively by the doctors for the diagnosis, management, and treatment of infection is suspected or probable COVID-19 patients.

"Of late, it has been seen that multiple variants of COVID-19 are not detectable through RT-PCR," it said.

Notably, HRCT is an imaging procedure that uses narrow beams of X-rays to create a high-resolution image of the patient's lung anatomy.

(With Agency Inputs)