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Two Covid patients share one bed, some sleep on floor while getting oxygen treatment at Sassoon hospital in Pune
There were more than 30 serious Covid patients who needed a senior doctor to attend to them, but there were only two resident doctors attending to these many patients, said a resident doctor of the hospital
On Friday, a video made rounds on social media showing two Covid-19 patients wearing masks and sitting on one hospital bed, some patients with oxygen support on the stretcher and also a few lying on the floor. These visuals were from Pune’s only state-run BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital (SGH).
The video shows close to 30-35 Covid patients all with oxygen masks either lying on the floor, on the stretcher or on the bed which is being shared by another patient.
A resident doctor on condition of anonymity said, “There were more than 30 serious Covid patients who needed a senior doctor to attend to them, but there were only two resident doctors attending to these many patients. The patients were made to stay in the casualty ward. The situation is dire. Doctors are willing to risk their lives, but we are also mentally exhausted and this load will only lead to more chaos.”
Overflowing Covid patients have exhausted the medical facilities at Sassoon which is almost on the verge of collapse. The hospital management now plans to add another 300 beds, however, residents doctors have decided to protect the decision unless more staff is hired.
Vijay Yadav, president of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), BJMC, Pune chapter, said, “We have about 450 resident doctors at SGH and since March this year we have had about 80 doctors who have tested positive. With have a huge crunch of resident doctors since doctors are continuously getting infected. We have been raising this issue with the dean repeatedly and we have had about five meetings with him, but there have been only verbal assurances.”
“Now, the management plans to increase the beds capacity from existing 500 to 800 beds. If the management decides to go ahead with increasing the beds without recruiting more doctors then we would stop all non-emergency works. As per discussion with the central MARD we will withdraw all non-Covid non-emergency services(OPD/ward work/routine lab work/routine radiology work) and all routine procedures with immediate effect for an indefinite period of time,” he said.
“If our demands are not considered till Saturday 9 am, central MARD will take a stand in all over Maharashtra. All ICU, casualty, labour rooms, emergency surgery and all Covid services will continue,” he said.
Despite repeated attempts to reach the dean of the hospital, Dr Murlidhar Tambe, did not respond to the queries regarding the video at the time of going to press.
The hospital is also in the process to convert its non-Covid and non-emergency wards into Covid wards. The only patient from the psychiatric ward is now being out of the ward to accommodate Covid patients.
A senior doctor attending the psychiatry department said, “There is only one female patient in the ward having schizophrenia who has been admitted presently. All other admissions have been denied unless extremely urgent. Although there is only one admission in the 30 bedded ward, the management is now planning to turn it into a Covid ward. The ward is now being made vacant to make room for Covid patients and because of this we are sending back non-Covid patients.”
