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2026 Supreme(Online)(Del) 19872
IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
Prathiba M. Singh, Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, JJ
Court on its own motion – Appellant
Versus
Union of India – Respondent
W.P.(C) 3903/2017 | W.P.(C) 8548/2017
For the Appellants/Petitioners: Mr. Kumar Utkarsh
For the Respondents: Mr. Vishwajeet Singh Bhati, Ms. Arunima Dwivedi, Ms Himanshi Singh, Ms Monalisha Pradhan, Mr. Amit Tiwari, Ms. Ayushi Srivastava, Mr. Arpan Narwal, Mr. Kushagra Malik, Mr. V.S.R. Krishna, Mr. Ravinder Agarwal, Mr. Manish Kumar Singh, Mr. Vasu Agarwal, Mrs Avnish Ahlawat, Mr Nitesh Kumar Singh, Ms Aliza Alam, Mr Mohnish Sehrawat, Mr. Rakesh Malhotra, Mr. Bharat Malhotra, Ms. Gayatri Bhatia, Mr. Sagar Saxena, Mr. Krishnandu Haldar, Mr. Abu Hassan Usmani, Ms Harshita Nathrani
The Court directed systemic administrative reforms in Delhi's government hospitals, focusing on centralized recruitment of permanent staff, functional emergency helplines, and a structured referral system to ensure the effective delivery of public healthcare services.
Headnote:(A) Public Health Administration - Hospital Management - Implementation of a common toll-free helpline (102) for real-time ICU bed availability to ensure efficient emergency services. (Para 7-15)
(B) Patient Care - Referral System - Necessity of appointing round-the-clock referral coordinators in government hospitals to prevent loss of crucial time during patient transfers. (Para 16-22)
(C) Human Resource Management - Recruitment - Requirement of a centralized HR policy for recruiting doctors and administrative heads (MS/MD) to ensure consistency and permanency, as opposed to stop-gap contractual employment. (Para 26-38)
(D) Medical Infrastructure - Equipment Utilization - Definition of 'unused equipment' as those not available for daily patient use due to lack of manpower, requiring a comprehensive audit. (Para 30, 40)
Issues: Whether the administration of government hospitals in Delhi is ensuring adequate staffing, efficient referral systems, and optimal utilization of medical equipment.
Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral)
1. On the last date of hearing i.e. 7th August, 2026, the Court had considered various issues with respect to the functioning of 38 government hospitals across Delhi, including the inconsistencies in use of NextGen e- Hospital Management Information System (HMIS), streamlining the process of a common helpline number for information across the hospitals, appointment of referral coordinators in each hospital, as also the issues pertaining to unused equipments lying in the hospitals.
2. With respect to the said issues, this Court had issued various directions to the Secretary, Department of Health & Family Welfare, GNCTD to hold meetings with the concerned persons and file their status reports on each of the aspects.
3. Today, a status report has been handed over by Mr. Sameer Vashishth, ld. Counsel for GNCTD on various aspects relating to management, administration and recruitment in various hospitals across Delhi. The status report is taken on record.
4. In the said status report, it is submitted that pursuant to the directions passed by this Court on 7th August, 2026, a meeting was held on 17th August, 2026, chaired by the Secretary, Department of Health & Family Welfare, GNCTD. Minutes of the meeting have also been placed on record along with the status report. The stand of GNCTD with respect to the various aspects is as under:
Toll Free Number
5. On 3rd July, 2026, the Court had directed GNCTD to consider setting up of a toll free number to facilitate emergency services and ICU beds related enquiries.
6. Pursuant to this direction, a status report was filed by GNCTD on 7th August, 2026. However, the same was not clear as to which is the CATS number which can be used for the said purpose and whether the persons who are answering the CATS telephones are provided with the information relating to availability of ICU beds and hospital speciality information or not. Hence, GNCTD was directed to file a better status report giving more details on this aspect.
7. In the minutes of the meeting placed before this Court today, the said issue has been dealt with and the stand of the GNCTD is as under:
“In compliance with the Order dated 07.08.2026 passed by the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in W.P.(C) 3903/2017, a meeting was held under the Chairmanship Secretary (Health & of Family Welfare), GNCTD on 25.08.2026. It was decided that the existing Toll-free number "102" operated by Centralised Accident & Trauma Services (CATS) shall be utilised as the common helpline for emergency services and for responding to public enquiries regarding availability of ICU beds in order to provide a common helpline number to citizens and avoid duplication of helpline numbers. Accordingly, on 02.09.2026, access to the ICU Dashboard web portal has been provided to the CATS Control Room (Toll Free No. 102) by the team comprising officers of the Information Technology Branch of H&FW Department, In-charge of the ICU Dashboard and NIC. Requisite training on Dashboard has also been imparted to the CATS Control Room staff by the said team. A dedicated Desk for monitoring real-time ICU bed availability has thus been made functional at CATS.”
8. As per the above, the toll free number “102” has been identified as the dedicated number to assist patients and their family members in respect of availability of ICU beds in all 38 government hospitals across Delhi. The operators on this toll free number who were earlier dealing with only ambulances are stated to have now been given access to an ICU dashboard portal so that whenever there is any enquiry in respect of the availability of ICU beds, the concerned operator can inform the caller about the said availability in a specific hospital, depending on the speciality as well.
9. Mr. Alok Kumar Divedi, the Head of Operations (CATS) is also present in Court today. In his presence, a few calls were made at the “102” toll free number, however, they were not attended to in the few initial attem
