Pune: Jumbo negligence at COVID Care Centres in the city

Pune: With the city remaining on top of the surge of total Covid-19 cases and also the high number of critically ill patients, the negligence of medical staff and mismanagement by administration officials has led to jumbo negligence in providing basic healthcare facilities to the citizens. 

Last week, a patient who was kept in the quarantine centre at Garware College for seven days, was shifted to COEP jumbo hospital. When the relatives of the patient went there, they were told that the patient was not there. As a result, the relatives frantically searched for their patient. For three days, the relatives were running pillar to post from one Covid centre to another to locate their patient, but to no avail.

Three days later, the COEP jumbo hospital administration informed the relatives that their patient was not there. Suddenly, on Tuesday night, the jumbo hospital authorities called the relatives and told them that their patient had died due to Covid-19. The administration did not allow the relatives to even see the dead body. It was a big shock to the bereaved relatives. They have now requested that at least two of them should be allowed to see the face of the deceased person.

There are many complaints from relatives about the irresponsible management of the Jumbo Covid Centre set up at Shivajinagar. One relative of a patient said, “My mother is 84 years old. I can’t find an ICU bed in any private hospital. So we have no choice but to be admitted to the Jumbo Covid Centre. However, no facilities are provided here. Nobody is telling us about her condition. For the last three days, she has not had a bath or anything.”

Earlier, television journalist Pandurang Raykar (42) succumbed to Covid-19 disease on Wednesday (September 2) morning 5.30 am as he could not avail good treatment due to unavailability of cardiac ambulance and ventilator in the newly set up jumbo hospital facility at the College of Engineering Pune (COEP) ground in the city.