Supreme Court to examine plea seeking hospital patient care allowance to PwDs

The Supreme Court on Friday decided to examine a plea challenging a May 7 notification issued by the Health Ministry stopping Hospital Patient Care Allowance (HPCA) to persons with disabilities working in hospitals and healthcare establishments recognised and funded by the Centre.

A Bench headed by Justice Vikram admitted the petition filed by the AIIMS Divyang Foundation, represented by advocate Rajeev Kumar Dubey, arguing that persons with disabilities who fall under the category of risk and hardship matrix in hospital work should be treated as a separate class and be covered by the HPCA.

The petition said the May 7 office memorandum was in violation of core fundamental rights of rights to live with dignity, equality and freedom to work enshrined in the Constitution and breached the provisions of The Rights of Person With Disability Act, 2016.

The petition also urged the apex court to frame appropriate guidelines for the grant of the HPCA/Patient Care Allowance (PCA) to avoid future misuse or lapse in implementation.

“HPCA/PCA is a critical security allowance, provided by the Centre to the non-ministerial employees and ministerial employees who are working in Group C and D of any Central government hospital or healthcare establishment, with 30 or more beds in general hospitals and more than 10 beds in super speciality hospitals and not receiving night weightage allowances and risk allowance,” the petition said.

It said the ‘risk and hardship matrix’ covers frequent exposure to communicable disease, risk from biohazardous materials and hospital waste, exposure to hospital-acquired infections, etc.

“Persons with disabilities working in health care are already a vulnerable class. They are far more prone to getting infected by any infectious disease or chemical exposure than a normal person. This would make them a separate class within a class,” the petition said.