Pune: Within two weeks of its inauguration, the Jumbo COVID facility at College of Engineering Pune (COEP) is facing tremendous problems in managing the treatment of patients as almost 80 medical staff including almost 40 doctors and 40 nurses have resigned. The resignation came after several alleged instances of gatecrashing, threats and abuses on the hospital staff took place in the facility.
The health facility already has more than 300 patients and at the time of appointment there were 50 doctors of 72 nurses but now only 35% of staff are left to manage the whole facility.
In view of the increasing cases of COVID victims, the authorities introduced the Jambo facility for Pune on the 25th of August, and currently, 350 beds are operational in the facility.
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The Indian Express reports that the agency responsible for providing health care workers in the facility alleged that the resignation came following the extreme political pressure and due to the conditions where many of the people gatecrashed the hospital and threatened the health workers. Facing this extreme pressure, the agency has also expressed its inability to manage the hospital.
The agency has stated that the staff was living in constant fear of their lives. However, as per Times Now, BMC, the civic body claimed that the agency was showing unprofessional behaviour and was incapable of fulfilling their promises.
Commenting on the allegations that the agency was inefficient in running the hospital, Patker, Director of the agency told The Indian Express that "We had appointed adequate staff and were in the process of recruiting more. But problems arose when political leaders started gate-crashing the jumbo facility and started abusing and threatening our medical staff. One by one, they started resigning. Some resigned a day after joining, some refused to join. Nobody wanted to work under intense political pressure."
It has been reported that considering the turmoil in the hospital and the resignation of so many health workers, the district administration appointed two more private agencies for providing healthcare professionals to ensure a sufficient workforce. However, the agency has reportedly refused to work this way. "We cannot run the hospital in a situation like this. The atmosphere has been vitiated by undue political pressure… we have conveyed our inability to run the jumbo facility to the divisional commissioner. They will have to take a decision on this…" Patker, director of Lifeline, told
The Indian Express adding that this tri-party system will only create problems ineffective coordination and will enhance confusion which can be a hindrance in the management.
He also mentioned that there are several medico-legal cases and a single party should not be held responsible for them; therefore the agency stated that it would be better to withdraw from the contract and allow the other parties to take care of the management for the time; however, the civic body has instructed the agency to not to withdraw till the situation is normalized.
The agency also added that they were supposed to follow a step-by-step process in commencing the treatment and 25% admission was to be accepted during the first week but they are already handling 350 to 400 patients and most of them were in a serious condition.
Times Now has reported that previously the civic body paid a visit to the facility considering the death of a journalist and allegedly found several inconsistencies in the management of the hospital. The report further stated that the civic body has assured 170 fresh appointments in order to handle the situation of scarcity of workforce in the facility.
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