Video shows patients sleeping next to covered bodies in Mumbai hospital
Civic officials say action will be taken against the responsible persons after investigative committee submit its report
Mumbai: The BMC on Thursday appointed a committee to investigate the viral video of Sion hospital, in which patients are seen sleeping next to dead bodies. Committee will submit its report in 24 hours.
In the video, it is seen that dead bodies of Covid–19 patients were kept wrapped in plastic bags right next to patients at a government hospital.
The BMC has also appealed to relatives of Covid 19 victims to come forward to claim bodies of the deceased.
The civic officials said that action will be taken against the responsible persons after the committee submit its report.
According to the state government’s circular, dead bodies of Covid patients must be handed over to their relatives within 30 minutes and disposed of within an hour. The BMC in its order stated that relatives of dead patients do not answer their call or do not claim the dead bodies. In such cases they inform local police station or disaster management department to dispose of bodies.
Dean of civic-run Sion hospital Dr Pramod Ingale said, “There are 38 racks in the hospital mortuary and 15 racks are reserved for dead bodies of Covid – 19 patients. When hospital employees contact relatives to claim the body they take time to reach the hospital or in some cases nobody comes to claim the body. Therefore there are more bodies that had to be kept outside the mortuary.”
The video has gone viral and was also shared by BJP MLA Nitesh Rane, who blamed he BMC and state government’s apathy.
Dr Daksha Shah, deputy executive health officer of the BMC said that the bodies were kept in the ward reserved for coronavirus patients only for 15 or 30 minutes. She said, “The video must have been taken at that time. There is always a transit period before bodies are moved.”
There are total 1450 beds in the Sion hospital out of which 211 beds have been reserved for the Corona patients. At present 130 patients are taking treatment for Covid – 19 and therefore there is no shortage of beds, claimed the hospital officials.