Central Lawn of AIIMS

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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court last week  urged the Delhi government to take steps to set up night shelters in and around all government hospitals in the city to protect patients and relatives from the biting cold and expressed happiness over the prompt action taken by All India Institute of Medical Sciences in this regard.

A bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Dipak Misra said poor people requiring specialized treatment came to Delhi from all over the country.

The difficulty is the inadequacy of infrastructure available at the hospitals. Delhi probably needs many more AIIMS like hospitals to cater to people coming to Delhi from all over India. And at this time of the year, the government must take steps to protect and preserve human lives from biting cold by building night shelters in all government hospitals in the city,” the bench said.

The joint inspection of night shelters carried out by the court commissioners and the officials of Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board ( DUSIB) showed that many of those using the night shelters were old and destitute, and were suffering from critical illnesses in the absence of health care.

The SC asked Delhi government to inspect all the night shelters, identify those needing medical help and admit those in government hospitals who needed constant medical attention.