Another Mumbai hospital comes under the scanner with the death of a worker posted in the coronavirus ward in the KEM hospital. This has sparked huge protests by the health workers and other employees outside the state-run facility. Hundreds of doctors, paramedics and others were seen protesting in masks with their protective gear on May 26, 2020.
The worker was a daily wager who had allegedly been denied leave though he had been sick for four days, as per reports. It is yet to be known if he died of because of COVID-19. This can be confirmed after the test results are out. However, his body has remained at the hospital mortuary since last night. The protesting health workers have demanded financial help for his family, along with some kind of compensation for the wrongdoing.
Furthermore, the doctors, nurses, attendants and Class 4 employees have united to draw attention to a deepening crisis of coronavirus cases with the bodies of the deceased becoming difficult for hospitals to handle. Harrowing images have emerged from KEM hospital of body bags on stretchers in corridors even as the protests peaked outside. The bodies of the deceased can be seen wrapped in blue plastic. These were allegedly moved from an overflowing ground-floor mortuary to the first floor of the hospital, along a corridor right next to a testing lab.
The KEM Hospital along with many others in Mumbai is run by the civic body BMC or Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The hospital has been stretched to the limit because of rising coronavirus cases and inadequate staff. The medical practitioners have stated that there is a different protocol for wrapping bodies of COVID-19 patients and these are handled by Class 4 employees who are trained to do so.
In the recent past, after back-to-back videos of body bags have emerged. This compelled the civic body to put out guidelines making it a must to remove the deceased from the wards within 30 minutes and to dispose of them within two hours.
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