Cuttack, Oct. 14: Orissa High Court has pulled up the state government for delay in starting the central intensive care unit and creation of a separate isolation ward at SCB Medical College and Hospital.
The high court has directed the state government to takes steps within the next 26 days to make the central ICU operational and file a compliance affidavit.
Expressing displeasure over the state government's laid-back approach, the court said the government could not be easy going as more than six months had passed since it was directed to come up with a separate ward at the SCB for unattended and unidentified patients.
The court had set a three-month deadline while issuing the direction on a PIL on March 31. A voluntary organisation, Sevak, had filed the PIL alleging that an Italian tourist Rosario Contiguglia, 63, had died at the hospital due to negligence in treatment on December 14, 2012.
On July 6, principal secretary of the health and family welfare department Arti Ahuja had filed a compliance report in the court and stated a 30-bed central ICU was under construction on the fifth floor of the casualty and trauma care centre.
While the civil work, including electrification and air-conditioning, is almost over, the process to procure equipment is on through Odisha State Medical Corporation. "Once the equipment are received and the ICU is functional, a separate isolation ward consisting of two beds in the central ICU will be carved out and named after the Italian tourist, Sebastian Rosario Contiguglia," Ahuja said in the affidavit.
Taking note of the affidavit on August 21, the court had expressed dissatisfaction over it and directed the department secretary to file another compliance report indicating whether the ICUs had been made functional.
But when the case came up yesterday, the state government sought two more months to file the compliance report. The division bench of Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice K.R. Mohapatra expressed disapproval over it and ordered submission of the compliance report by November 9 and fixed November 12 for next hearing.
The court had asked for a compliance report with details about destitute patients and their rehabilitation.
