Jammu: The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has directed the authorities to file a status report about appointment of oncologists and installation of PET scan machines in the hospitals across Jammu and Kashmir.
Hearing a petition in public interest seeking directions to the authorities to provide basic health facilities for treatment of cancers in J&K, a division bench of Chief Justice N. Kotiswar Singh and Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi also urged the Advocate General of the government to assist the court in the matter.
“Keeping in view the importance of the issue, we request the learned Advocate General to assist the court in the matter and file a brief status report with regard to appointment of doctors and installation of PET scan machines,” the court said and ordered listing of the plea on July 16.
The petition, filed in 2017, also seeks directions to the government to provide an adequate number of oncologists, onco-surgeons, PET scan machines, etc., for the treatment of various types of cancers.
The court had last directed the Chief Secretary of the Union Territory to file an affidavit, and apprise it about steps taken towards implementation of the court orders; the constraints faced, if any; the steps taken for overcoming such constraints, and the exact amount of time needed for making the OPD about cancer operational, and PET scan machines installed.
It also directed making available the services of oncologists and other allied staff to see that the State Cancer Institute, Super Specialty Hospital (Government Medical College) Jammu, is made functional in all respects.
About the PET scan machine, the respondent authority has already been directed to take effective steps to get the machinery in all the medical colleges. The issue had been directed to be taken note of with all seriousness and the government was supposed to provide machinery in all the government medical colleges, where cancer patients are to be treated, within a period of six months.
The failure of the respondents to comply with the directions passed by the court in the PIL, constrained the petitioner to file a contempt seeking implementation of directions passed by the court.
