Gandhinagar: Gujarat High Court has taken positive note of Gujarat Government’s response to the former’s observations passed on Friday (May 22, 2020) on the Ahmedabad COVID-19 Civil Hospital based on anonymous letter of a resident doctor and four medical officers, Minister of State for Law Pradeepsinh Jadeja said here today.

Jadeja said that since the aforesaid anonymous letter circulating in the social media since the first week of May did not reflect correct situation in the hospital, the Gujarat Government had appealed to the high court to take up the matter urgently to put facts straight in the larger interest of the public.

In response to the high court’s another directive to constitute an independent committee to look into the difficulties faced by the resident doctors and other staff in the hospital, the state government immediately formed a panel of four renowned doctors, namely Dr. Pankaj Shah, Dr. Tejas Patel, Dr. Atul Patel and Dr Harish Doshi.

The government also invited the high court to make a surprise visit to inspect first hand the facilities for patients, which the high court accepted. The Civil Hospital had admitted as high as 62 per cent of total Covid patients while the treatment is totally free, he said.

The Advocate General Kamal Trivedi and Government Pleader Manisha Luvkumar made a detailed point-wise presentation on the previous and fresh order before the high court bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Ilesh Vora.

The advocates submitted the details with photographs, CCTV network clippings, hospital management system, available infrastructure and treatments, AIIMS Director Dr. Randip Guleria’s recent visit to the hospital and the government’s response to 22 points raised in the anonymous letter.

The advocates also submitted details of Deputy Chief Minister Nitinbhai Patel and Additional Chief Secretary Jayanti Ravi’s regular visits to the Civil Hospital to inquire about the treatment and facilities.

The government submitted the report of three senior government-appointed medical officers, namely Dr. Ami Parikh and Dr. Advait Thakor of SVP Hospital and Vipin Amin of Civil Hospital.

The report said that resident doctors did not submit any written complaint to the head of medicine about patients’ management, non-availability of essential medicines and consumables, rather there is stock of ten days besides adequate staff, computers linked to management system in each ward and ICU. The COVID Hospital undertakes weekly rotation of clinical and medical management, on-duty residents and doctors issuing discharge or death certificates.

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