Pune Municipal Commissioner writes to PMRDA Commissioner, raises lack of facilities at Jumbo COVID Centre
Sep 03, 2020
Pune (Maharashtra) [India], September 3 : Pune Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar has written a letter to Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) Commissioner Suhas Diwase highlighting "lack of facilities at Jumbo COVID Hospital."
Kumar wrote the letter after his visit to Jumbo COVID hospital in Pune.
"The number of medical staff required is not available. Patients are not given breakfast/food by the administration. Despite instruction to make 50 beds available for suspected patients, only 10 beds are made available. There are no enough data entry operators available. The register to maintain the roster of staff working at Jumbo COVID hospital is not made yet," the letter reads.
"There is no hold of agency operating this centre on either staff and management. All agencies responsible here have no coordination among themselves. The patients are not being admitted when needed and they are being sent back by giving irrelevant reasons," it added.
Three Jumbo COVID hospitals were ordered to be built by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar with an investment of Rs 300 crores of which 50 per cent amount is spent by the state government while the remaining amount was spent by the district administration and PMRDA.
Each hospital was supposed to be of 800 beds including 600 oxygen beds and 200 ICU beds with ventilators. However, despite official launching, this hospital was not made completely functional as the required medical staff wasn't available with district administration.
The first JUMBO COVID hospital was inaugurated on August 23 in presence of Ajit Pawar and was joined online by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
A regional TV journalist Pandurang Raikar had died in the same Jumbo COVID hospital where family alleged lack of care. Operations of Jumbo COVID Hospital are done under PMRDA (Pune Metro Regional Development Authority) through different agencies. Pune District Administration has asked the Sassoon Hospital Dean to investigate if there was a failure in treatment protocol while providing treatment to journalist Pandurang Raikar.
