The Gujarat high court pulled up the state government over the "pathetic" conditions at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad. The court claimed the conditions to be "as good as a dungeon, may be even worse".
The high court took suo motu congnizance of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on COVID-19 pandemic on Friday.
The bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and IJ Vora lashed out at the Vijay Rupani led-government over "distressing and painful" conditions at the Ahmedabad Civil hospital which had recorded 377 deaths due to COVID-19 till Friday.
"It is very distressing and painful to note that the condition prevailing, as on date, in the Civil Hospital, is pathetic... We are very sorry to state that the Civil Hospital Ahmedabad, as on date, appears to be in an extremely bad shape," the bench observed.
"The Civil Hospital contributes to 62 per cent of the total deaths," the high court said.
"As we said earlier that the Civil Hospital is meant to treat the patients. However, it appears that as on date, it is as good as a dungeon. May be even worse than a dungeon. Unfortunately, the poor and helpless patients have no option," it added, warning that it would conduct a video conference with doctors at the hospital if it finds the state's response to be unsatisfactory.
The court also asked the Gujarat Health Minister Nitin Patel and Chief Secretary Anil Mukim if they had "any idea" about the difficulties faced by patients and staff. The court also asked if the government was aware "of the hard fact that the patients at the Civil Hospital are dying because of lack of adequate number of ventilators".
Gujarat had reported 396 positive cases on Saturday, taking the state's tally to 13,669 of which 6,169 have been cured and and 829 succumbed to the deadly virus.
The high court urged the state government to take help from "trustworthy" NGOs, volunteers and charitable institutions in combating the pandemic.
Nine districts in the state had reported fresh cases on Saturday, with Ahmedabad reporting 277 cases. The total number of COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad touched 10,001. Death toll of in Ahmedabad rose to 669, while it stood at 60 in Surat.