After several legislators and opposition leaders raised concerns over the mismanagement of the Covid crisis in Uttar Pradesh, Union Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar has written a letter to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday, stating series of issues including oxygen shortage, black marketing of ventilators, and other medical equipment in his constituency Bareilly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The move comes weeks after the Chief Minister denied any oxygen shortage in the state’s hospitals and promised strong action, including seizure of property, against people spreading rumours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the letter, Gangwar has complained about the Covid management in his constituency saying officials never respond to distress phone calls and government health centres send back patients for referrals from the district hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said, there are cases in which the patient despite taking a referral and going to the government hospital is asked to go back to the district hospital and get the referral done again. Due to this, the condition of the patient is deteriorating and this is a matter of concern. In this scenario, it is very necessary that the COVID-19 patients are immediately admitted to the referral hospitals in the least possible time, Gangwar wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On black marketing, he said various equipment like multipara monitors and ventilators are being sold in the market at 1.5 times than the original price. There is a shortage of empty oxygen cylinders, the main reason being that many people in the city have kept oxygen cylinders in their homes as a precautionary measure and these are being sold at high rates, he wrote in his letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Further, he urged the government to take strict actions to fix the prevailing issues in the city. He suggested fixing the prices of the equipment, and identify those\u00a0 persons who are involved in hoarding and blackmarketing and initiate action against them. He also requested the government to make a suitable arrangement so that the Covid-19 patients could be admitted to private hospitals, which should be given facilities given to Covid hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n