Death of Covid patient at COEP Jumbo centre sparks complaints by docs

PUNE Within a week of its reopening, the Jumbo facility set up at COEP is riddled with complaints from ICU doctors

PUNE Within a week of its reopening, the Jumbo facility set up at COEP is riddled with complaints from ICU doctors.

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The doctors have now written a letter to deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar mentioning their difficulties. Earlier too, the Jumbo centre had come under fire when it first opened last year. The doctors have written to Pawar stating that in addition to a shortage of beds, untrained doctors are attending to severe patients as the management refuses to recruit competent staff.

In their letter, the doctors have claimed that the 250 Oxygen beds and 25 ICU beds are not insufficient, given the number of increasing Covid-19 patients in the city.

The letter states, “Untrained doctors have been recruited as ICU doctors, which is why the case fatality rate is now going up. We would recommend that the same staff which was recruited during the first five months of the Jumbo facility, be recruited again. The same old team must be recruited, who already have the experience of running the Jumbo facility during the first wave.”

A doctor working at the facility said, “The incompetence of the current staff, who although are professional doctors, do not have the experience to handle ICU patients, is now affecting the patients. We had a patient on Sunday night who was critical and needed critical care. However, as the doctors on duty failed to take the right decision in time, the patient died even before he could be admitted to the ICU. Earlier, ICU doctors were paid ₹60,000 per month, which has now been brought down to Rs45,000; and doctors are not willing to work at a lower salary.”

Dr Shreyansh Kapale, director of Medbros, which is running the facility, denied all the allegations made by the doctors. “That particular patient died of cardiac arrest which was a sudden death and infrequent in Covid-19 patients. The doctors complaining are some of those who were not recruited this time. They are using the situation to get their jobs back.”