Non-payment of dues puts CoEP jumbo unit in a soup; staff sacked

Collector says funds yet to be received from state government with patient count reducing; agency running it has not got bills cleared since October

With the second wave of COVID looming large on the city, the medical infrastructure was supposed to be strengthened but in a U-turn, the agency running the jumbo facility at College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) complained that operating it has become a challenge as the authorities are yet to clear pending bills. Worse, the authorities will now clear minimum bill as per the expression of interest (EOI), as patient count is coming down.

Amid this, the agency has sacked many a staffer while enabling others to quit on their own.

Officials at Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) have sought funds from the collector and other agencies for clearing the bills as they are expected to pay as per the mandate. The collector, on the other hand, said while the funds that they had received from the state government have been cleared, the rest will be paid as soon as the Mantralaya clears the remaining amount.

With the increasing number of cases and bed availability crisis around July, the state government had asked the administration to start jumbo facilities in Pune. Accordingly, two jumbo facilities - one at PMC and the other at PCMC - were inaugurated in August. Initially, the facilities functioned with less number of beds but those were run with full capacity later. However, the occupancy has gone down with the reducing number of patients. Considering the reduced number of COVID cases, the CoEP facility is also barely occupied.

Speaking to Mirror, Rubal Agarwal, additional commissioner of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), said, "We have shut all other facilities and are hospitalising all patients in this jumbo facility. We are operating 600 beds with an aim of being prepared for the second wave. Considering the number of beds being operated now, we are clearing bills and PMRDA will pay minimum amount as per EOI."

However, the agency operating the CoEP facility has claimed that they are finding it difficult to operate in the given scenario. According to sources, PMRDA has sought funds from district planning committee (DPC) and collector. Dues of the agency will be cleared once funds received. With no funds in place and lack of patients, the agency started sacking their employees. Almost 30 staff members have been let go and more are likely to be sacked too. While the bills of other agencies like infrastructure have been cleared, the bills of medical agency are yet to be okayed since October, as per the sources.

Asked about this, Dr Shree Kapale, dean of CoEP jumbo hospital, said, "Quality control is regular process at medical segment. As per the bed occupancy and revenues, we keep doing it, which usually results in disengagement of excess manpower than necessary."

PMRDA commissioner Suhas Divase said, "We are just the implementing authority. Funds are given by DPC, PMC and collector among others. Through these funds, we clear the bills. Till now, 50 per cent of the funds were given by PMC, 25 per cent each by Pimpr-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and DPC. Of the pending amount of Rs 24 crore, Rs 20 crore was cleared. Apart from that, December bills are yet to be received. At present, 600 beds are functioning at both PMC and PCMC facilities. Even the staff are being maintained as per the current capacity. But we are prepared for increasing the capacity as and when needed."

Asked about the possibility of a second wave, collector Rajesh Deshmukh said, "We had received Rs 50 crore which was already sent for payments. Apart from this, as and when the next round of amount is received from the state government, we will clear the payments."