‘Sangli hospital got swift okay to run as Covid-19 centre’

After a cosmetic surgeon was arrested by the Sangli police on June 19 for running a fake Covid19 hospital a civic source claimed that the municipal commissioner of SangliMirajKupwad Municipal Corporation Nitin Kapadnis is good friends with the arrested doctor The official added that Dr Mahesh Jadhavrsquos Apexcare Hospital was granted permission to run as a Dedicated Covid19 Hospital DCH hurriedly so that no got a chance to raise red flagsA senior civic official also claimed that 30 patients died when the hospital operated as a DCH last yearCivic chief Kapadnis told midday ldquoAll doctors are my friends and so is Dr Jadhav who I know for a yearrdquoWhen asked about the grounds for a cosmetic surgeon running a Covid19 hospital Kapadnis said ldquoIt was the responsibility of Medical Health Officer Dr Sunil Ambole to scrutinise the documents provided by Dr Jadhav but nothing was donerdquoDr Mahesh Jadhav owner of the hospitalldquoOne senior clerk was deployed to check daily updates at Apexcare but the lapses were not brought to my notice I have initiated an enquiry against Dr Ambole and the clerkrdquo Kapadnis saidHowever a source at the municipal office in Sangli said ldquoKapadnis acted so swiftly on Dr Jadhavrsquos application that none of the staff got a chance to conduct the survey to check for its eligibilityrdquoBlame gameldquoThe blame game started after the death of 87 patients this yearrdquo said the civic officerResponding to this claim Kapadnis said ldquoThe second wave of the pandemic was devastating people were struggling to get hospital beds When the request came in from Dr Jadhav I thought Dr Ambole must have scrutinised the documents and I signed the order grinding DCH statusrdquoNitin Kapadnis municipal commissioner SangliMirajKupwad Municipal CorporationThe source added that apart from the clerk three officers from the district collectorrsquos office were deployed at Apexcare for daily monitoring The source said that Covid19 deaths have not been tallied and could be higher Kapadnis said that the civic body is collecting information from crematoriums to ascertain the number of deathsDistrict Collector Abhijeet Chaudhary said ldquoI have asked the civic chief to submit documents to know the grounds for giving permission The primary report has been submitted by the municipal corporation but we need a detailed report which is awaitedrdquoShouldrsquove checked doctorsrsquo listKapadnis further said ldquoWe only seek the number of doctors at a hospital wanting to operate as a DCH because we never thought such things would happen Here too we received a list of doctors including physicians anaesthetic paramedical staff etc We should have checked whether they exist or notrdquoKapadnis added that a Covid19 hospital assessment squad appointed by the civil suregon had visited the hospital thrice and found the doctors in placeldquoAfter several patientsrsquo complaints I made surprise visits on April 22 and May 2 I noticed a number of loopholes including inadequate medical and paramedical staff trained doctors lack of a waiting area inflated hospital bills etc There was no biomedical waste agency at the hospital The medical equipment was also inadequate So on May 3 I gave them a notice to rectify the loopholes by May 7rdquo Kapadnis saidWhen the hospital did not adhere to the rules the DCH order was cancelled on May 7 and serious patients were shifted to another hospital Apexcare was sealed and a case was registeredCivil Surgeon Dr Sanjay Salunkhe said ldquoThe municipal commissioner granted the permissionrdquoNo billsAn officer from the treasury department said that Apexcare never issued billsInvestigating officer Shashikant Chavan said that the hospital had switched off all CCTV cameras Police sources said that the hospital had also handed over a few Covid19 positive bodies to their relatives after taking Rs 15000 from each family