Need white paper on deaths in Thane hospital: Vijay Wadettiwar

Vijay Wadettiwar, a leader in the Maharashtra Congress, requested a white paper on the situation of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Thane's Kalwa on Thursday. The hospital made headlines after 18 people died there over the course of two days on Saturday and Sunday.

Wadettiwar, who is the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, was speaking to reporters after visiting the sprawling facility and holding discussions with Thane Municipal Corporation additional commissioner (health services) Sandeep Malvi, medical superintendent Dr Aniruddha Malgaonkar and dean Dr Rakesh Barot.

Wadettiwar, blaming the civic body for the fatalities, demanded Rs 10 lakh in compensation for each of the deceased's relatives. He said that more than 50% of the permanent positions at the hospital, including those for a cardiologist, neurosurgeon, and oncologist, are unfilled and that critical patients are occasionally not visited by experts even 48 hours after being admitted.

Due to reasons best known to it, the TMC had refused to hand over the hospital to the Maharashtra government when such a request was made during the time Prithviraj Chavan was chief minister, Wadettiwar said. He slammed the Eknath Shinde government and questioned how it planned to recruit doctors for hospitals in remote areas of the state in Vidarbha, Gadchiroli or Konkan when it is not able to do so at a facility in Thane near Mumbai.