Overview
- The Lucknow bench, which heard the PIL on Wednesday, ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to file affidavits for every district detailing ventilators and other facilities in hospitals and medical colleges.
- The judges said the state's figures are meaningless without a way to track day‑to‑day demand versus working machines and told the government not to rely only on National Medical Commission norms that set ventilators at roughly 10–15% of beds.
- The court sought data on trained staff to run ventilators, including recruitment over the past five years, and flagged low pay that pushes government doctors to private hospitals.
- The bench made the Union Health Ministry and the National Medical Commission parties to the case and asked Deputy Solicitor General S.B. Pandey to explain how private hospitals are regulated, including standards of care and fees.
- The court asked how many SGPGI or RML‑type super‑speciality centers exist or are planned outside Lucknow to reduce patient travel and listed the matter for further hearing on May 25.