RWAs say they can’t set up Covid centres without admin’s help with essentials

Two days after Gurugram deputy commissioner Yash Garg empowered resident welfare associations (RWAs) to set up their own Covid-19 care facilities (CCFs), RWAs said that the plan might fail without help from the administration to procure medicines, machines, oxygen cylinders

Two days after Gurugram deputy commissioner Yash Garg empowered resident welfare associations (RWAs) to set up their own Covid-19 care facilities (CCFs), RWAs said that the plan might fail without help from the administration to procure medicines, machines, oxygen cylinders.

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Garg’s plan was to reduce the burden on existing facilities, including big and small hospitals, that are reeling under the heavy case load in April. The city had suffered over 59,000 cases in that month alone.

Garg’s order issued on Saturday stated that RWAs can set up the facility at community centres, clubhouses, or empty flats using their own resources. It said that the facilities were approved following requests from the RWAs.

“The deputy commissioner’s order does not mention any financial assistance or supply of resources from the administration,” said Dhruv Bansal, official spokesperson, Gurgaon Citizens Council (GCC) an umbrella body of RWAs in the city. “RWAs simply do not have the capital or the resources to themselves set up a fully functional CCF. We will be reaching out to the DC for more assistance in the matter.”

On Monday, the district administration also issued a set of guidelines for setting up these facilities.

The CCF, it said, will not be for critical patients, senior citizens, children below 10 years of age, pregnant or lactating women, people with comorbidities, or those whose immunity was compromised. They, the guidelines said, should be admitted to proper hospitals. Those admitted in a CCF must be attended by a doctor residing in the complex who should undergo training organised by the chief medical officer.

This point has come in for criticism.

Nilesh Tandon, president of Fresco Apartments RWA, a condominium in Nirvana Country, said, “The order is impractical and not feasible. The whole idea of setting up a CCF was to ensure patients that cannot find hospital beds can use this facility instead. Asymptomatic and mild Covid-19 patients are anyway isolating at home, we wanted to set up a facility where severe patients can get admission along with the correct line of treatment.”

Tandon said that the aim of setting up a CCF was to use the assistance of the administration and the health department to treat patients rather than the other way as it is now. “Also doctors are likely to be overburdened at this point where the cases of Covid-19 are surging day-by-day,” he said.

Garg could not be reached for comment.