Union Government Confirms BMHRC & AIIMS Merger Under Consideration Amid Controversy, ET HealthWorld
Bhopal: The Union govt on Monday told a division bench of MP high court that the issue of merger of Bhopal Memorial Hospital & Research Centre (BMHRC) with All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) was under the consideration of the Union cabinet.
During the previous hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) pending with the court over proper medical care of the Bhopal gas victims filed by an NGO, the counsel for the central govt had said that the proposal for merger of BMHRC with AIIMS mooted by the standing Parliamentary committee of health ministry has been struck down by the health ministry. The Union govt’s reply came in in response to an application of an NGO seeking a court directive that BMHRC should not be merged with AIIMS in the interest of gas victims.
Upon this, the bench of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf had asked the Union govt to give in writing that AIIMS and BMHRC would not be merged.
During the hearing of the case on Monday, the central govt admitted that a proposal for merger of two hospitals was pending before the Union cabinet. Following this, the court asked the respective lawyers of the Union and the state govt to get instructions from their respective clients and get back to the court.
On digitisation of medical records of the gas victims, the court was informed on behalf of the central govt that a tender was floated for the purpose. Since only one tender was received, tender has been invited again.
In August 2012, the supreme court had transferred the PIL seeking court intervention for proper medical care of Bhopal gas victims to the MP high court filed by NGOs working among the gas victims with a 20-point direction to the central and the state govt to ensure better medical care of gas victims at state-run gas relief hospitals and the BMHRC. A monitoring committee headed by Justice V K Agarwal was also constituted to keep a tab on medical facilities being provided to the gas victims and present a quarterly report to the MP high court with its recommendations.
Later, a contempt petition was also filed by the petitioners alleging that directions of the supreme court and later by the high court based on the recommendations of the monitoring committee were not complied with by the officials concerned of the central and the state govt and National Informatics Centre (NIC).
The court had held the additional chief secretary (gas relief) of the state and two NIC officials, who had headed the NIC unit at Bhopal, guilty of contempt and proceedings against some more top officials of the state and the central government was also initiated but later the court dropped the charges following assurance by the officials concerned to work out a strategy to comply with the court orders in consultation with the monitoring committee.
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