Centre will be responsible if patients die due to faulty ventilators: Bombay HC
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Aurangabad (Maharashtra): In a significant ruling, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court on Wednesday said that the Centre would be held responsible for any deaths that occur due to faulty ventilators that the government has provided, reported IANS.
The court of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Justice BU Debadwar was hearing a plea on the management of Covid-19.
The bench said that they would not permit experimentation of ventilators that have undergone major repairs in treating the patients.
The verdict comes after the bench noted that the faulty ventilators would be causing a risk/health hazard to the patient that may cause loss of life, which must be averted.
Following this, the Additional Solicitor-General of India Anil Singh said that a team of expert doctors from New Delhi would visit the Government Medical College & Hospital, Aurangabad (GMCH) on Thursday to inspect the defective ventilators.
The court has posted the matter for further hearing on June 7.
The matter pertains to 150 ventilators provided to the GMCH in April under the PM CARES Fund which were supplied by Rajkot-based Jyoti CNC, of which around 133 were found to be defective or malfunctioned.
A GMCH committee had submitted a report on the ventilators which suffered continuous breakdowns even after repairs, and hence the machines were not being used as a precautionary measure with the Maharashtra Congress Spokesperson Sachin Sawant raising the issue in a big way.