Judge’s complaint on Hepatitis-B to be heard as PIL

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A complaint made by an Allahabad High Court judge against non-availability of a life saving drug in Uttar Pradesh hospitals is to be taken up for hearing as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by Chief Justice F.I. Rebello Friday.

The complaint was made by Justice Sudhir Agarwal on account of the agony and disgust that he went through due to non-availability of a life-saving Hepatitis-B vaccine in any government or private hospital in Allahabad.

In his complaint to the chief justice, the judge said that he procured the vaccine for his daughter from Delhi. After getting his daughter operated for multiple fractures at the state-run Swaroop Rani Nehru Hospital here on April 9, the judge was informed the girl needed to be immunised against Hepatitis-B.

Doctors said she was exposed to the grave danger as two patients operated upon in the same operation theatre a day earlier, were affected by the Hepatitis B virus.

Subsequently, two more surgeries were carried out in the same operation theatre.

The surgeon confessed to the judge that the hospital had not cared to warn any of those four patients about the Hepatitis-B infection, nor about the dangers of exposure to the deadly virus or the need for them to get immunised against it.

Justice Agarwal got further alarmed when he discovered that the operation theatre was neither sanitised nor was the usual immunisation protocol observed before his daughter was operated upon there.

“As per the guidelines of the WHO (World Health Organisation), patients suffering from Hepatitis-B or from HIV needed to be either operated upon in complete isolation or it needs to be ensured that the operation theatre is completely sanitised before any other patient is operated upon,” the judge pointed out in his complaint to the chief justice.

The judge sought to draw the chief justice’s attention to the fact that while he managed to procure the expensive vaccine through his own resources from New Delhi, that may not be feasible for every other patient.

“I, therefore, request you to treat this letter as a PIL and to order necessary steps because other patients were not even aware of the dangers they were exposed to,” Justice Agarwal was stated to have written in his letter.

1 COMMENT

  1. The lethergy, callousness and negligence of the state is increasing day by day especially in the feild
    of providing medical care to the citizens. The condition of Government hospitals is deplorable and
    many of them lacking doctors, medicines, beds and other basic facilities. If Judges are unable to get
    life saving drugs then what will be the plight of a comman man. Needless to say providing best medical
    care is the constitutional obligation of the state. Inspite of the above, required attention is not being
    given towards health sector. Value of human life is loosing importance in the eyes of goverment, due
    to which we find several poor, sick and disabled persons lying on footpaths in our modern cities for
    want of urgent medical aid. Therefore Justice Sudhir Agarwal has done a right thing in complaining
    the matter to The Hon’ble Chief justice which is now being treated as a public interest litigation.
    Hence necessary directions must be given in the above pil in the interest of public at large and
    the same must be an eyeopener for all the other states. Recently justice DV Shylendra of Karnataka
    High Court has also written a letter to the Karnataka Chief Justice complaining about the cutting of old and
    big trees in Banglore for road widening and the same was treated as PIL. Hence it is a hightime now
    that bonafide and genuine pils must be encouraged for directing the governments when they fail to
    discharge their statutory duties.
    WASIM AHMED KHAN
    ADVOCATE HYDERABAD.

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