Pune: Doctors at Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial (YCM) hospital in Pimpri-Chinchwad held protests on Monday morning alleging manhandling by a Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Corporator Sandeep Waghere.
Waghere had entered into an argument with the doctors over the admission of a female patient who had reportedly died on Sunday night, but the doctors asked her relatives to shift her to the Intensive Care Unit. Waghere alleged that the doctors were trying to hide their failure in saving the life of the woman who was undergoing treatment for Covid-19 disease. Doctors refuted these charges and then a verbal spat ensued between Waghere and them.
After this incident on Sunday late night, doctors at the hospital gathered to protest over this issue on Monday morning. Doctors said that they won’t resume duties till they are granted protection.
Corporator Sandeep Waghere has denied all allegations. He said, “I haven’t beaten up anyone. I understand that they are doctors, but they were shifting a dead woman to the Intensive Care Unit. We had a squabble over this issue but I have not beaten anyone. The doctors are lying.”
However, doctors claimed that Waghere had reached the hospital along with the patient’s relatives at around 1.30am. While they were convincing the relative to shift the patient into the ICU, relatives and Waghere started arguing with them. Waghere kicked a stretcher kept nearby and abused us, the protesting doctors have alleged.
YCM is the biggest hospital in Pimpri-Chinchwad with 750-bed capacity and nearly 40 surgeries a day. The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) reserved it for treating only COVID-19 patients, only critical patients or those with severe symptoms are admitted to the hospital. Rest of the patients are admitted in the Covid Care Centre. Initially, the patients were admitted to the ground floor isolation unit, but now they are admitted to the fifth and sixth-floor isolation units. Patients from neighbouring talukas like Lonavala, Mancha, Junnar are also admitted here.
