Ajit Pawar vents his ire on Pune administration over poor facilities at Jumbo Covid treatment facilities

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Pune: Irked by complaints of shoddy management in newly set-up Jumbo Covid-19 facilities, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday vented his ire over Pune district administration and warned that cases pertaining to medical negligence or insensitivity shown by the staff in these facilities would not be tolerated henceforth.  

Pawar, who is also Pune’s Guardian Minister remarked “If there are any shortcomings in the information on availability of beds or medical negligence, then strict action will be taken,” he said. Pawar asked the authorities to take  urgent steps to restore faith of the public in the credibility of these Jumbo Hospitals.  

The 800-bed critical care jumbo facility which opened at the College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) grounds a fortnight ago has the eye of a raging storm, with more than 40 deaths reported, besides a slew of complaints regarding the insensitivity of the medical staff.

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The recent death of 42-year-old television reporter Pandurang Raikar, who was undergoing treatment at the CoEP facility, further brought the poor management of these centers into sharp relief.  

According to sources, an upset Pawar reportedly came down heavily on top officials in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal bodies for failing to get the situation under control and even hinted at transfers unless things started improving quickly. 

The Deputy Chief Minister was reportedly disappointed with the Pune district administration’s efforts to check the spread of the contagion, especially as civic authorities had managed to control the spread of the virus in a city like Mumbai.

With a view to ensure that there was no shortage in the availability of oxygen supply in hospitals, Pawar directed Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao to constitute a committee under Pune Zilla Parishad Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ayush Prasad to monitor the oxygen supply in hospitals across Pune division which includes the districts of Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur and Solapur besides Pune.  

As patients from all over Maharashtra came to Pune for treatment, it was imperative for the Jumbo facilities to operate at full capacity, remarked Pawar. 

Expressing concern over rapidly increasing number of positive cases, Pune Mayor and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murlidhar Mohol demanded that the number of RT-PCR tests be increased.  

Besides, Pune, Sangli and Kolhapur are emerging as the virus hotspots in western Maharashtra with each district witnessing massive daily spikes of more than 900 new cases in the past few days. 

Yesterday, Sangli witnessed more than 1,000 new cases. The district’s death toll has exceeded 650. We are in the throes of a full-blown medical crisis where critical patients are succumbing owing to the lack of oxygen. Despite industrial units supplying 20% of their oxygen to hospitals, a massive shortage prevails with a number of deaths due to oxygen depletion occurring in some private hospitals,” said Sangli-based lawyer and activist Amit Shinde, urging immediate government intervention to resolve the problem of oxygen shortage.