Mumbai: Days after a video of bodies lying in the Covid ward of the King Edward Memorial (KEM) hospital went viral, another video of patients and their relatives sitting on the floor outside the wards is now grabbing eyeballs on social media.
The hospital administration has said it is unable to admit patients due to a shortage of beds and those seen in the video are non-Covid cases being treated in the emergency ward. On Friday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ram Kadam shared a video purportedly showing patients sitting on the floor at KEM hospital. "#KEM hospital today 11.45 am... video.
You can see how no of patients are sitting on the ground? No medical help? Nothing? So sad. Will Maharashtra Govt wake up?" Kadam tweeted. In the clip, the hospital seems extremely crowded, with dozens of patients seen sitting on the floor.
Hospital authorities have said all the patients seen in the video are non-Covid, being treated in the emergency ward and all the necessary precautions are being taken to avoid the spread of infection. The hospital has the most corona patients and all wards are full. All these are non-Covid patients who do not need any admission.
Only emergency non Covid patients are admitted to the hospital, while the rest are given treatment and discharged, so that they do not contract infection, he said Sharing the video, Kadam took a swipe at the Maharashtra government, alleging inadequate healthcare assistance at KEM Hospital where coronavirus-infected patients are also being treated.
In separate tweets, he claimed patients are struggling to get admitted in KEM hospital. On May 9, BJP MLA Nitesh Rane had shared a video clip showing body bags lying near patients inside the Covid ward at KEM hospital.
Rane had remarked that the BMC was normalising sightings of bodies. Before that, Rane had shared a similar video, allegedly showing the inside of the Covid ward at the BMC-run Sion Hospital where bodies were sharing space with patients under treatment.
