NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, INDIA vs. Union of India and Others seeking issuance of directions by the Hon’ble Supreme Court to all the States/UTs on various facets of the problem of Silicosis. Along with the Interim Application, NHRC has submitted recommendations on Prevention, Remedy, Rehabilitation and Grant of Monetary Compensation aspect of Silicosis. The matter is on-going in the Supreme Court. F. Ayushman Bharat Scheme 6.31 India’s flagship public health insurance/assurance scheme ‘Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana’ provides cashless cover of up to Rupees 5,00,000 to each eligible family per annum for listed secondary and tertiary care conditions. In order to review the implementation status of this scheme, Special Rapporteur, NHRC, Dr. Vinod Aggarwal, visited Maharashtra on 27th November, 2019 and specifically in the district of Aurangabad on 30th November 2019. It was informed that the system of providing services under this scheme does not cater to the schedules of the surgeons/doctors concerned. Further, it was also informed that there are no triggers in the software for catering to the problems of fraud or mistakes for cases of double claim for same surgery or same treatment of the same patient by the same hospital or by a different hospital. It was reported that there is no system to keep a tab on whether the admission in the hospital set up is more than the number of beds and if there is also a system to keep a tab whether the hospital is reporting repeatedly such types of instances. It was also reported that there is a need for a medical audit about the number of surgeries performed, whether the patient has become alright or still suffering from various complications or not. It was informed that the concept of mortality audit is being introduced but surgical morbidity or complication audit not even planned. In this regard, the Commission recommended that the State Government needs to strengthen the scheme at the district level, cater to the discrepancies in the system and special attention is required to be paid to the worst performing districts in the State. G. Illustrative Cases in the year 2019-20 1. Death of a one-and-a-half year old girl due to burn injuries in Bundelkhand Medical College in District Sagar, Madhya Pradesh after she was denied a ventilator (Case No. 316/12/37/2019) i. The Commission came across a distressing news published in the ‘Times of India’ dated 11.02.19 captioned “Doctor tells parents to 'get ventilator', baby dies in MP”. As per news report a One-and-a-half year old girl died of burn injuries in Bundelkhand Medical College in District Sagar, Madhya Pradesh after she was denied a ventilator. The parents of the baby alleged that they were told that the hospital does not have a ventilator and were insisted by the doctor that a ventilator costing Rs. One Crore should be arranged by them somehow. As mentioned in another news report on the same subject published in the ‘Indian Express’, the Dean of the Medical College has stated that a ventilator was available in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where the patient could have been shifted. ii. The Commission on 11.02.2019 took suo motu cognizance of the news report and observed that the ventilator was available but the doctor on duty did not make any efforts ANNUAL REPORT 2019-20 99