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Written by Sandeep A Ashar
| Mumbai |
December 5, 2020 8:24:28 am
The violations listed by the dean has shown that the centre had not appointed nursing staff as per EOI specifications. (Representational)The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is all set to take over the management of hospital beds at Mulund’s Richardson and Cruddas jumbo Covid-19 care facility.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal, who is the civic body’s nodal officer for all jumbo care facilities, told The Indian Express that he had asked the civic Public Health Department to run the facility.
Earlier on Thursday, BJP’s local MLA Mihir Kotecha had released an internal note by the jumbo care centre’s dean Dr Pradeep Angre on October 22 where he had made serious allegations against the private trust — Ms Aasha Cancer Trust and Research Centre — contracted by the civic body to manage 600 hospital beds at the facility.
The violations listed by the dean has shown that the centre had not appointed nursing staff as per EOI specifications.
It further alleged that the centre had also not appointed sufficient doctors, consultants and technical staff with a shortage of 30-50% and had not corrected the same despite repeated complaints.
The dean’s note, which had cited 16 violations in all, had also accused the operator of violating discharge practices as prescribed by ICMR and keeping asymptomatic patients at the centre under one pretext or the other even after the completion of the prescribed 10-day period, among other major lapses.
Dr Satish Kamat, the trust’s president, had denied all allegations made against the firm and had even raised a complaint against the dean with civic higher ups.
But with local assistant commissioner and the deputy municipal commissioner also backing Angre’s observations, sources said that the BMC has decided to discontinue the firm’s services.
Assistant Commissioner Kishore Gandhi, when contacted, said that his office had already conveyed the local ward’s readiness to run the centre using the BMC’s own staff. “We are prepared to take over the moment the charge is handed over,” Angre said.
After the health department cited manpower crunch at the peak of the pandemic, the civic estate’s department under Jaiswal had outsourced bulk of the hospital beds in Mumbai’s jumbo care facilities.
While Angre had first moved the note for termination of the trust’s contract in October, the trust had approached the civic higher-ups complaining over “non-cooperation” from the local staff. Kotecha had on Thursday questioned the inaction in the matter.