Pune: Over 80 Doctors, Nurses Quit Jumbo COVID Hospital, Management Says Patients Being ‘Dumped’ In Critical Condition

Pune, September 5, 2020: Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and rising cases in Pune city, 80 healthcare workers including 40 doctors and 40 nurses have quit their jobs at the Jumbo COVID hospital at the College of Engineering Pune (COEP) ground in Shivajinagar. The facility had just been inaugurated recently and till Friday, 80 healthcare workers had quit their jobs citing safety concerns, reported The Indian Express newspaper.

Sujit Patker, Director of Lifeline agency which is overlooking all the management at the facility said that over 80 medical staff have left the facility citing safety issues. “The doctors and nurses are scared for their lives as some workers from a political party had gate-crashed, threatened and abused some of our medical staff before due to which the medical staff got frightened. In a time like this, people are not allowing doctors to focus on their work. They are filing RTI petitions, pressurizing doctors and diverting their attention away from saving lives and treating COVID-19 patients”, he said.

Patker told The Indian Express that doctors and nurses have been quitting their jobs almost on a daily basis. Some are even scared to join the facility and have refused to join.

Despite this, the facility has launched a new recruitment drive to bring in new doctors and nurses at the facility. Addressing the safety concerns of the healthcare workers, Patker said that they have appointed five bouncers in each shift to guard the doctors and other staff.

“The main problem the doctors are facing at the facility is that patients from other hospitals were being dumped in the facility in huge numbers. Many of the patients shifted here were in critical condition. In the last 10 days, 35 deaths have taken place in the facility. All these patients were shifted here in extremely critical conditions”, said Patker.