Poona Hospital refuses to admit patients, PMC issues notice

Pune, June 5, 2020: Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad has issued notice to Poona Hospital and Research Centre, Navi Peth, for allegedly refusing to admit two patients. The government claims to have reserved 80 percent of the beds in private hospitals as COVID19 patients are on the rise. But hospitals are saying they don’t have beds. The municipality has issued a show-cause notice to Poona Hospital for the same reasons.

Poona Hospital sent two patients back in an autorickshaw, saying there were no vacant ICU beds left in the hospital. Those patients are currently admitted to Bharti Hospital. The patients include a 60-year-old man from Market Yard area and a 75-year-old woman from Parvati Paytha area. They had gone to Poona Hospital on Thursday. According to the rules, the hospital was supposed to treat them or send them in an ambulance to the hospital where beds were available. All the hospitals can get information about the availability of ICU beds in the city at a click of the mouse.

The municipal commissioner has sought an explanation from the hospital within 24 hours, blaming the hospital administration for not following the medical profession norms. The municipality has warned to take action if it was found that rules have been violated. The PMC chief has also shot off a letter to all the hospitals ordering them not to refuse any patient.

Meanwhile, in Pune today 182 new COVID19 patients were found in while in Pimpri-Chinchwad 45 patients were found. Also, 9 patients died in Pune and 2 in Pimpri-Chinchwad. With the increase of 182 patients in Pune, the total number has reached 7,447 out of which 4675 have been cured while 369 have died. In Pimpri-Chinchwad, 45 patients were found today and two died during treatment. As a result, the total number of Coronavirus positive patients has reached 678. Today, 35 people were discharged.

Coronavirus continues to plague the state. Corona killed 139 people in the state today while 2436 new patients reported across Maharashtra. The number of COVID19 patients in the state has crossed the 80,000 mark. The reassuring thing is that today 1475 patients were discharged from hospitals.

The recovery rate in the state is 43.81 percent. The death rate in the state is 3.55 per cent. The total number of corona patients in the state has reached 80,229. So far 35156 patients have recovered and returned from hospitals. There are still 42,215 active patients undergoing treatment, said Health Minister Rajesh Tope.