Pune: Opposition parties and leaders have demanded that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) should immediately arrange for beds with ventilators, oxygen and other facilities in civic hospitals or unused outpatient departments.
Leader of opposition Deepali Pradeep Dhumal, Shivsena leader Prithviraj Sutar, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Vasant More and Congress leader Aaba Bagul have written to the PMC Commissioner Vikram Kumar to make necessary arrangements for patients in civic hospitals.
The opposition leaders came together after the news broke out of the death of the retired scientist Dr P. Lakshminarasimhan due to unavailability of a ventilator bed in the city on Wednesday (July 15) early morning. The number of COVID-19 cases is increasing in the city every day. The total number of cases so far have crossed the 30 thousand mark and this figure could touch or go beyond one lakh mark in the near future. Queues of patients were seen outside hospitals, while the ICU, ventilator and oxygen beds are falling short to treat patients.
In their letter, the opposition leaders say, "Unavailability of ventilator and oxygen beds is a serious issue, especially when the PMC administration has hundreds of crores of funds with them. The PMC administration has entered into agreements with the private hospitals for handling the COVID-19 crisis. However, when patients are taken to these hospitals they are denied admission citing reasons like shortage of beds."
"PMC has also delayed the recruitment process of doctors, nurses and other staff in its health department. This is one of the reasons why the civic administration has failed to create adequate healthcare facilities for its citizens. We had given a letter to the administration in this regard, but we haven't received any answer yet. If any patient dies because of not receiving treatment in time, then the concerned hospital and persons should be charged with culpable homicide," the leaders have demanded in the letter. The leaders have also appealed to the commissioner that the administration should answer the points which they have raised in the letter.
