This is an archive article published on August 12, 2020
Pimpri: YCMH fails to start two ICU units, admin says efforts underway to resolve oxygen supply problem across hospitals
In another development, the PCMC chief said the D Y Patil Medical College will conduct a serological survey among local residents to assess the presence of antibodies, a marker to determine the extent to which the infection has spread in an area.
Covid infection leads to two types of cardiac complications one is acute, during the infection and other is chronic when the patient has recovered from the infection. (Representational Image)
EVEN as the YCM Hospital in Pimpri failed to start its two intensive care units (ICUs) due to lack of adequate stock of oxygen cylinders, the district administration said it was taking steps to resolve the problem of oxygen supply, faced by several hospitals across the district.
The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation had decided to start two ICU units on Monday in the face of surging demand for ventilator beds in the ICU. However, PCMC Commissioner Shravan Hardikar said they could not start the two ICU units as they did not have enough stock of oxygen cylinders.
“We expect to get 300 cylinders by Wednesday night. If that happens, we will start the two ICU units on Thursday,” he said.
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“There is a constant demand for ventilator beds and operationalising these two ICUs will benefit patients from Pimpri-Chinchwad and other areas,” he said.
On Monday, a 75-year-old Covid patient from Kasarwadi, who was admitted at the YCM Hospital, was asked to look for a ventilator as the ICU had no space for him. “We had to search all over Pimpri-Chinchwad to find an ICU bed. The PCMC and YCMH administration refused to take responsibility of the patient. They told us they didn’t have bed space in the ICU and we should search for it…,” said the daughter of the patient. The family finally found a vacant bed at Bhosari Hospital.
“Had the ICU been operational, we could have admitted the patient here. But we are also helpless,” said Dr Rajendra Wable, dean of YCM Hospital.
Ayush Prasad, who is holding temporary charge as Pune district collector, admitted that hospitals didn’t have adequate stock of oxygen cylinders. “There is no shortage as such but the supply of oxygen is under stress…” he said.
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Prasad said hospitals were facing problems with storing ‘jumbo cylinders’ which are available in the market. He said the problem of supply will soon be resolved once a private company, which will manufacture oxygen, becomes functional. “The company is facing some electrical issues. We have decided to shut down the power supply for some 10 industrial units in Chakan area to install the electrical system for this private company. This will be done on August 15, when industrial units have an holiday,” he said. The company will manufacture 40-tonne oxygen per day.
“This is expected to resolve the oxygen supply problem,”said Prasad.
In another development, the PCMC chief said the D Y Patil Medical College will conduct a serological survey among local residents to assess the presence of antibodies, a marker to determine the extent to which the infection has spread in an area.
“We have given approval to DY Patil College to conduct the sero survey. It will focus on residential societies. We are finalising the details,” said Hardikar.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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