23 June,2021 07:54 AM IST | Mumbai | Diwakar Sharma
Apexcare Hospital in Sangli. Pics/Hanif Patel
After a cosmetic surgeon was arrested by the Sangli police on June 19 for running a fake Covid-19 hospital, a civic source claimed that the municipal commissioner of Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad Municipal Corporation, Nitin Kapadnis is good friends with the arrested doctor. The official added that Dr Mahesh Jadhav's Apexcare Hospital was granted permission to run as a Dedicated Covid-19 Hospital (DCH) hurriedly so that no got a chance to raise red flags.
A senior civic official also claimed that 30 patients died when the hospital operated as a DCH last year.
Civic chief Kapadnis told mid-day, "All doctors are my friends and so is Dr Jadhav who I know for a year."
When asked about the grounds for a cosmetic surgeon running a Covid-19 hospital, Kapadnis said, "It was the responsibility of Medical Health Officer Dr Sunil Ambole to scrutinise the documents provided by Dr Jadhav but nothing was done."
"One 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 clerk," Kapadnis said.
However, a source at the municipal office in Sangli said, "Kapadnis acted so swiftly on Dr Jadhav's application that none of the staff got a chance to conduct the survey to check for its eligibility."
"The blame game started after the death of 87 patients this year," said the civic officer.
Responding to this claim, Kapadnis said, "The 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 status."
The source added that apart from the clerk, three officers from the district collector's office were deployed at Apexcare for daily monitoring. The source said that Covid-19 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 deaths.
District Collector Abhijeet Chaudhary said, "I 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 awaited."
Kapadnis further said, "We 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 not."
Kapadnis added that a Covid-19 hospital assessment squad, appointed by the civil suregon, had visited the hospital thrice and found the doctors in place.
"After several patients' 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 7," Kapadnis said.
When 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 registered.
Civil Surgeon Dr Sanjay Salunkhe said, "The municipal commissioner granted the permission."
An officer from the treasury department said that Apexcare never issued bills.
Investigating 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 Covid-19 positive bodies to their relatives after taking Rs 15,000 from each family.
