Decide On Reducing Cost Of CT Scan Test For Covid: High Court To Delhi

The High Court told the government to take a decision for reducing rates of the Computerised Tomography.

The Delhi High Court on Monday directed the Delhi government to treat as a representation a Public Interest Litigation seeking capping of the price of High-Resolution Computerised Tomography (HRCT) used for detecting the presence and severity of COVID-19 infection in the lungs of patients. A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh told the government to take a decision in accordance with the law, rules, regulations and government policy, applicable to the facts of the case and by also keeping in mind the steps taken by some other states to reduce rate of the Computerised Tomography. With the direction, the court disposed of the plea by Shivleen Pasricha, a lawyer, who had claimed that several variants of COVID-19 were not detectable through RT-PCR and doctors were prescribing Computerised Tomography tests for better diagnosis. However, while the test was reasonably priced in Delhi government hospitals and under the Central Government Health Scheme, its cost in private hospitals in the national capital ranged between Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,500.