No govt approval needed for Covid-19 tests: Gujarat HC

The issue raised by the Ahmedabad Hospitals and Nursing Home Association (AHNA), which had moved an application seeking a recall of the court’s earlier orders, directing the state government and the AMC to ensure prices are capped at the private hospitals to ensure no exorbitant billing for Covid-19 treatment, was taken up.

The Gujarat High Court (HC) on Friday said there was no need to take the state government’s permission before conducting Covid-19 test at private laboratories before emergency procedures.

The court heard several issues related to the Covid-19 situation in the state, the order for which is reserved for Saturday.

The court’s opinion came in response to issues highlighted by the Ahmedabad Medical Association (AMA) which had filed a plea seeking relaxation in the policy where prior to emergency operative procedure or invasive surgeries or delivery, an RTPCR test at a private, ICMR-approved laboratory, required a filling out of ICMR requisition form by the laboratory, a doctor’s prescription prescribing the test, to be forwarded to the chief district health officer (CDHO) or medical officer of health (MOH) and conducted only after they gave a nod. For Ahmedabad, such requests had to be sent to the Gujarat Medical Education and Research Society (GMERS) Hospital at Sola, for their approval.

AMA had complained that these approvals were taking as long as three or five days, delaying emergency procedures and putting the lives of patients at risk.

AMA had sought that testing at ICMR-approved private laboratories and hospitals be permitted to conduct RT-PCR tests “without any interference” from the government.

While the state government submitted that the gatekeeping cannot be eased for the private laboratories and was pursuant to ICMR guidelines, the division bench headed by Chief Justice Vikram Nath impleaded that ICMR joined as a party. The bench that conducted the hearing on video conference decided that subject to filling of an ICMR requisition form and a doctor’s prescription for test for a patient awaiting emergency procedure, the labs or hospitals can intimate the nodal government authority and proceed with the testing, minus waiting for an approval.

The senior counsels representing the state government, the advocate general and the government pleader, submitted that pursuant to the court’s directions, of the 42 private hospitals in Ahmedabad, which were notified for designated Covid-19 treatment by the AMC, four were deemed to be not competent for Covid-19 treatment and the remaining 38 have been brought onboard. Eight other private hospitals, that the HC had specifically taken note of in a May 22 order, for not being brought under the Covid-19 treatment ambit, too have been brought on board, as was submitted. The 46 private hospitals combined are expected to increase capacity by 1,700 with the MoU executed for most of these hospitals already, while for some others, the process was underway.

The court reportedly expressed its satisfaction with this development.

The issue raised by the Ahmedabad Hospitals and Nursing Home Association (AHNA), which had moved an application seeking a recall of the court’s earlier orders, directing the state government and the AMC to ensure prices are capped at the private hospitals to ensure no exorbitant billing for Covid-19 treatment, was taken up.

The price capping was done following a May 14 order after the court took note of allegations of advance deposits to the tune of lakhs were being charged by the private hospitals. Subsequently by a May 22 order, the court was of the opinion that the prices should further be capped and had directed the state to negotiate for the same such that prices remain affordable.

The state government in its negotiations with the private hospitals had proposed a reduction in price by 30 per cent, which the AHNA were not agreeable to. During the proceedings, AHNA president Dr Bharat Gadhvi, who was also present in the chamber of his advocate, agreed to a 10 per cent reduction in the already capped prices of general and high dependency units (HDU) wards and another five per cent reduction in the capped ICU ward pricing. With respect to allegations of over-charging, the HC is learnt to have stated that the court would come down heavily, if material evidence pointing to malpractice was brought on record