Patna High Court on Friday ordered the state government to submit a status report of all hospitals across Bihar, including medical colleges, sadar hospitals, sub-divisional hospitals and primary health centres (PHCs).
The court was hearing a PIL filed by advocate Manibhushan Pratap Sengar.
Sengar has alleged pitiable condition of the government hospitals in all 38 districts of the state.
The order was passed by a division bench of Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) Hemant Gupta and Justice A. Amanullah.
The petitioner had alleged in his petition that nearly all the hospitals in the state are devoid of basic infrastructure, shortage of faculties and doctors, inadequate number of beds and medicines and lack of proper laboratories.
Sengar told the court that the health sector had collapsed as a result of which the patients are facing a lot of hardships.
He further told the court: "The patients visiting the hospitals do not get proper treatment as at times doctors do not remain available in the hospitals as well as on several occasions the necessary medicines and vaccines are not available. The trauma of the patients as well as the attendants further gets aggravated with lack of adequate beds in the hospitals and unhygienic condition prevailing in and outside the hospital. Even the staff, posted at the hospitals especially in rural areas, do not properly behave with the patients and their attendants visiting hospitals for treatment."
In the midst of the argument, ACJ Gupta conceded that though around 98 per cent of the population is dependent on the government hospitals, they shy away from going to the hospitals, including those located in towns and cities, as the facilities there are inadequate.
The judges then directed the state government to file status report of all the hospitals located at 38 districts across the state.
However, the state counsel additional advocate general (AAG-6), Anjani Kumar, expressed the state's inability in providing the report of all the hospitals across the state immediately and agreed to provide the status report of all the hospitals located in Patna district in the first phase.
The court agreed on this and directed the government to provide the report of all the hospitals falling under Patna district within four weeks.
However, it (court) then directed the state to convey it as by what time the government could provide the report of all the hospitals of the Bihar.