Mumbai: Video of patient occupying bed next to corpse at Shatabdi hospital emerges

As the video went viral, Dr Pramod Ingle was asked to step down as the hospital’s dean by the BMC on Friday. (Representational)

BJP legislator Nitesh Rane on Sunday shared on the social media a video clip purportedly of a Covid-19 patient occupying a bed next to a body at Shatabdi Hospital in Kandivali. This is the second such video to emerge this week.

On May 6, Rana had shared a video of Sion hospital’s isolation facility where four bodies were seen lying on cots and stretchers with coronavirus-infected patients. As the video went viral, Dr Pramod Ingle was asked to step down as the hospital’s dean by the BMC on Friday.

In the new video, a male patient, on oxygen support, is purportedly heard saying that doctors were not checking on him regularly. The patient also claimed a body of another patient on a bed next to his had not been removed by the hospital authorities.

Shatabdi Hospital superintendent Dr Pramod Nagarkar said the incident occurred early on Saturday morning. “The relatives of the dead patient were quarrelling with doctors and sisters and took one hour to accept the body. That is why it was on the bed. But as soon as they calmed down, the body was immediately shifted to the morgue with the due protocol of disposal,” Nagarkar said. He added complaints of the patient’s, seen in the video, were addressed by Sunday.

Meanwhile, the inquiry report in Sion hospital, to assess why bodies were occupying stretchers in a ward with patients, is yet to be submitted to BMC. “I joined the post today. I am yet to receive the report. It will be submitted in a day,” said Dr RN Bharmal, who was appointed the dean of Sion hospital last week.