Nainital: Taking note of the recent incidents in the state where patients were ferried to hospitals in palanquins, the Uttarakhand high court asked the state government to approach Centre within 72 hours to obtain a no-objection certificate to upgrade the Swami Ram Cancer Hospital in Haldwani to ‘State Cancer Institute’. The institute is affiliated to Dr Susheela Tiwari Government Medical College and Hospital.The court also directed the central government to accord necessary permission for the same in the next few weeks.The division bench of acting chief justice Rajiv Sharma and justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari observed, “The court can take judicial notice of the fact that a few patients are ferried to the hospitals on palanquins and even on chairs to the nearest hospitals after traversing long arduous terrain.” The court directed the state government to prepare a detailed project report within three weeks for the upgrade of the institute.The court also ordered the state government to provide the latest state of the art equipment/machineries, required under the minimum standard requirements of the medical college. The bench asked the state to accord the necessary permission for creation of the posts in the departments of nephrology, neurology, urology and heart disease within a period of one week and to complete the selection process of 138 assistant professors within a period of six weeks and issue the appointment letters within four weeks.The state government has been asked to deploy 61 newly acquired ambulances within four weeks, to hold interviews within six weeks on emergency basis by selection committee presided over by the vice-chancellor of the HNB Medical Education University Dehradun, to complete entire procedure of e-tendering in four weeks regarding contract to build trauma centre within three months and to fill up 445 vacant posts of medical officers in Kumaon division.The directions came while hearing a public interest litigation filed by Chandra Shekhar Joshi and Vikas Bhagat, residents of Haldwani, requesting facilities like life-saving drugs to the patients.

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