Pune: PMC Gets Exposed Before Bombay High Court Over Availability Of COVID Hospital Beds
Sumit Singh
Pune, 12th May 2021: The work of Covid Helpline, which was started by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to provide beds to the corona affected patients immediately, was today tested in Bombay High Court.
The helpline number was called. Then, despite having a ventilator bed in the city on the dashboard, the person who picked up the phone said that there was no bed in the city. The incident took place in front of the judges and the municipal administration officials.
The helpline was been started by the PMC in March. Initially, the helpline was run by municipal employees. However, due to complaints about the helpline, the municipal corporation has allowed a call centre to run it from March 25. The corporation has provided 15 phone lines and has appointed 60 teachers and the private company has deployed 50 employees.
पुणे महानगरपालिकेचे बेड व्यवस्थापन हेल्पलाईन क्रमांक ०२०-२५५०२११० आणि ०२०-६७८०१५०० असून या दोन्ही क्रमांकावर बेडच्या उपलब्धतेसंदर्भात माहिती मिळवू शकता.#माझा_मास्क_माझी_सुरक्षा #BreakTheChain#PMCFightsCorona#पुण्याचा_निर्धार_कोरोना_हद्दपार#मीजबाबदार#PuneFightsCorona pic.twitter.com/n2JKToMc5x
— PMC Care (@PMCPune) April 25, 2021
During a public interest litigation (PIL) hearing on Wednesday about the Corona situation in the city, the petitioners’ advocates said that although the municipal helpline number was open, there were a large number of complaints about it. Accordingly, a call was made from the court at 2:29 pm on the helpline number of the municipality.
The call was made after confirming the bed information available on the dashboard. The call was received by a teacher and the caller asked for an ICU bed for the patient. The teacher who was on the helpline at the time said no bed is available and asked to call later. When it was told that the dashboard shows that beds are available, the teacher said that beds are not visible there and disconnected the call.
After this incident, Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar, Additional Commissioners Rubal Agarwal and Dr Kunal Khemnar inspected the war room. The appointments of all the teachers there have been canceled immediately and now the helpline numbers will be manned by the call centre employees only. In addition, a show-cause notice has been issued to the teacher concerned.
The corporation has also appointed seven more engineers for this war room and they will monitor the work. In addition, all incoming phone calls will be recorded and checked regularly, Additional Commissioner Agarwal said.
