Society won't forgive us if we don't take care of our doctors: Supreme Court

The society will not forgive the judiciary if it doesn't take care of doctors and stand for them, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday while reserving its judgement on a plea against non-inclusion of doctors and health workers who lost their lives battling Covid-19 at private clinics, dispensaries and non-recognised hospitals in insurance policies.

A Bench comprising Justices P S Narasimha and R Mahadevan said the government must ensure that insurance companies settle the valid claims, and added that the assumption that private doctors were working for profit making was not correct.

“Society will not forgive us if we don't take care of our doctors and don't stand for them...

“You should compel the insurance company to pay if according to you the condition is met that they were on COVID response and they died because of COVID. Merely because they were not in government duty, the assumption that they were making profits and then they were sitting is not correct,” the Bench observed orally.

The top court directed the Centre to provide relevant data and information regarding other similar or parallel schemes available apart from the Pradhan Mantri Insurance Scheme.

"Give the data to us and some information about other parallel schemes that are available apart from the Pradhan Mantri scheme. We will lay down the principle and on that basis claims can be made to the insurance company. It is for the insurance company to consider and pass orders on the basis of our judgment,” the Bench observed.

The top court was hearing a plea by Pradeep Arora and others against a March 9, 2021, order of the Bombay High Court, which held that private hospital staffers were not entitled to receive benefits under the insurance scheme unless their services were requisitioned by the state or the Central Government.

A plea was filed in the high court by Kiran Bhaskar Surgade, who lost her husband -- who ran a private clinic in Thane -- to Covid-19 in 2020.

The insurance company rejected her claim under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) on the ground that her husband's clinic was not recognised as a Covid-19 hospital.

The PMGKP was announced in March 2020, and its coverage has been extended since then.

It was launched to provide a safety net to the health workers to ensure that in case of any adversity due to Covid-19, their families are taken care of.

An insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh is provided to the health workers under the PMKGP scheme, which has become a safety net for the dependents of the Covid warriors who lost their lives to the infection.