The Supreme Court today shot down a proposal for airlifting patients to hospitals, observing that it was not advisable in the light of the recent helicopter accident involving President Pratibha Devisingh Patil.

“We are not having regular ambulances. You are talking about fancy airlifting” of patients by launching a chopper service, a Bench comprising Justices RV Raveendran and KS Radhakrishnan remarked in response to a proposal mooted by Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaisingh.

The ASG made the suggestion as part of a series measures proposed by the government to deal with situations such as the June 13, 1997, fire at the Uphaar cinema hall here which had left 59 people dead and 103 injured.

In this context, the Bench also made an apparent reference to the death of a kidney patient who died in Chandigarh last month due to the failure to get timely treatment at the PGI owing to the traffic restrictions at the time of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit there.

Traffic on all roads leading to major hospitals should remain unaffected by VVIP movements, the Bench suggested.

Responding to the chopper service proposal for airlifting patients, the Bench also specifically referred to the Bhubaneshwar incident in which the rotor blade of an IAF chopper which was carrying the President hit an abandoned building while taxiing on the runway on December 10.

The chopper hit the only building in the airport and the proposed medical service by air would have to be provided in cities cluttered with highrises, the Bench observed, explaining its non-feasibility.

Source: The Tribune