As the city is seeing an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases, residents are also facing a shortage of beds at hospitals. Political leaders from all the parties in the city have raised concern over the issue.
On Monday, leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) held a protest at the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) municipal commissioner’s office to highlight the issue of shortage of beds and the plight of residents who are unable to find beds in spite of the dashboards showing vacant beds.
Abhijit More, AAP leader, said, “We have demanded that the civic body should acquire maximum beds in private hospitals as the Covid-19 crisis is worsening day-by-day in the city.”
“We want the municipal commissioner to look into the issue of hospitals and nursing homes not updating real-time dashboard on bed information,” said More.
Ajay Shinde, city unit president, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, said, “Though on records, the administration is claiming that they have enough infrastructure, on ground residents are facing a lot of problems.”
“They are not getting ambulance service on time and they have to run from pillar to post to get a patient admitted. Some people have lost their lives due to lack of immediate medical attention,” said Shinde.
{{/usCountry}}“They are not getting ambulance service on time and they have to run from pillar to post to get a patient admitted. Some people have lost their lives due to lack of immediate medical attention,” said Shinde.
{{/usCountry}}Nilesh Nikam, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, said there have been cases where residents were unable to get a bed at private hospitals.
“Residents have to check at various hospitals in case there is a need for ICU bed. The situation is deteriorating day-by-day,” said Nikam.
Siddharth Shirole, Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) MLA too has raised the concern over the shortage of beds in the city hospitals and appealed to the central government to interfere in the crisis.
Opposition party leader Deepali Dhumal, Congress leader Aba Bagul, Shiv Sena leader Prithviraj Sutar and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Vasant More had jointly written a letter to the municipal commissioner to dissolve the fix deposits of the civic body and purchase ventilators and other medical equipment amid the rise in cases where patients were unable to get beds at hospitals.