In Pimpri-Chinchwad, senior citizen faces three-hour ordeal, obstacles at every step to get admission to YCM Hospital

Her daughter Bharati Shinolkar said on Saturday afternoon, at about 1.30 pm, she found that her mother was not responding to her attempts to wake her up, and she called up the YCMH ambulance service. The ambulance arrived four hours later, at 2.30 pm, but it neither had a wheelchair nor an attendant to help the patient, said Bharati.

According to her, the driver of the ambulance told her brother, Ajay Shinolkar, to carry the stretcher and bring his mother on it, with the help of local residents.

Ajay himself has not been keeping well for some time, said local residents.

When local residents called up YCMH chief Dr Rajendra Wable, he asked the ambulance driver to come back. The ambulance driver was told to carry the wheelchair and two staffers to ferry the patient to the hospital.

“By the time we reached the hospital, it was already 4 pm and my mother was struggling to breathe,” said Bharati.

But the travails of the family did not end there as the doctors at YCMH asked them to take the patient to Sassoon Hospital. “We were told that ventilators were not available at the hospital and we should take the patient to Sassoon Hospital,” said Bharati.

It was only after Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar, who was alerted about the issue by local residents, intervened and directed YCMH to admit the patient, did the hospital complete the formalities and put the patient on ventilator.

“All the ventilators were occupied by patients… somehow we accommodated the senior citizen,” Hardikar told The Indian Express.

By Saturday evening, Shinolkar’s condition had stabilised. She neither has fever nor a cold.

Since the coronavirus outbreak started, the PCMC administration has directed civic officials and urged local residents to take special care of the elderly, who are in high-risk category for the disease.

“But this is how they treat senior citizens,” said advocate-activist Sushil Mancharkar, who visited YCM Hospital on Saturday.

For Pimpri-Chinchwad residents, health survey by civic team at the doorstep

Many residents of Pimpri-Chinchwad were taken by surprise when their doorbells rang on Saturday, after nearly 10 days of restrictions and lockdown to prevent spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).

The visitors were three-member survey squads sent by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to check on the health and well-being of all those who have been staying indoors following the nationwide lockdown that was announced four days ago.

The civic staffers enquired about the number of family members and their ages, if anybody had foreign travel history, and the present health status of both infants and senior citizens.

“Can we see the senior citizens, do they have any flu-like symptoms,” enquired a woman staffer, dressed in khaki uniform, covered with white coat and a scarf around her face.

The survey team spent about two minutes outside every house. They were also seen checking the cleanliness of the locality.

Many residential societies here had barred the entry of visitors, parcel delivery agents and newspaper delivery boys a fortnight ago as a measure to maintain social distancing and limit interactions among people.

“We were initially hesitant to open the door, as we were not expecting any visitors. But after interacting with civic staffers, we felt that the PCMC is taking measures to keep everybody safe,” said Parul Kalyani, a resident of Pimple-Saudagar, whose housing society was surveyed on Friday.

Similarly, many residents were reluctant to open their doors. But the brief interaction was well received, and many of them gave information while maintaining sufficient distance from the visitors.

When asked about the experience of door-to-door visits, one of the woman staffers said, ” It is our duty, but we take pride in being able to contribute.”

The team also handed over pamphlets giving information in Marathi about COVID-19, including explanations on common symptoms found among those suffering from the disease, the do’s and dont’s , instructions to those with flu-like symptoms, treatment regime and need for hospitalisation, and the need for wearing masks, among others.