Pune: Member of Parliament Vandana Chavan has demanded that Covid-19 testing facility should be made available 24x7 in various government hospitals in the city. Chavan has also suggested that if the Pune Municipal Corporation is unable to handle the jumbo hospital facility then it should be handed over to the military medical officers.
In Pune, Covid-19 testing is available in the evening or at night in some private hospitals. But the testing facility at government centres closes at 3 pm. If one wants to test in the evening or at night through the government system, the service is not available at present. For this, Covid-19 testing should be available for 24 hours in Sassoon Hospital at the least.
Also, at present, Pune residents have to get their Covid-19 test done at the ward offices of the Pune Municipal Corporation. It is not possible for the citizens who have gone out for work. For this, the administration needs to make arrangements so that any citizen can get himself tested at any centre, Chavan has stated.
Chavan said, “If the PMC is unable to handle the jumbo centre in Shivajinagar, then its management should be handed over to the officers of the Armed Forces Medical College. Bouncers from private companies have also been deployed at the jumbo centre for security reasons. There have been some incidents where the relatives of the patients have been harassed by these bouncers. The situation of distressed relatives needs to be handled sensitively. The police can carry out this responsibility properly. Therefore, there should be police security instead of bouncers.”
“The city requires urgent planning to address the shortage of ventilators. Also, due to lack of up-to-date information on the dashboard, citizens are struggling to get beds. Emergency patients are having difficulty in getting immediate treatment. The dashboard needs to be upgraded immediately,” Chavan said.
Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar had organized a meeting at Vidhan Bhavan on Saturday to review the Covid-19 situation in Pune district and measures to be taken to bring it under control. On the occasion, NCP President Sharad Pawar, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, State Health Minister Rajesh Tope as well as Cabinet Minister Dilip Walse-Patil and Minister of State Dattatreya Bharane, various MPs, MLAs, Municipal Corporation and Zilla Parishad office bearers and National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) Director Dr Sujit Kumar Singh and other administrative officials were present. Chavan briefed Tope about the situation in Pune and suggested the measures to be taken.
