At least six out of seven lifts at Swami Ramanand Teerth Medical College and Hospital in Maharashtra's Beed are inoperative, forcing relatives to help carry patients to wards on the upper floors of the facility, a senior official said on Friday.
The medical college and hospital at Ambajogai has a bed capacity of 1,177, and is also a centre for treating Covid-19 patients from Beed and neighbouring districts, the college's dean Dr Shivaji Sukre said.
There are seven lifts in the entire premises, of which the administrative building has two, another wing has three and the medicine wing has two, the official said.
Of the two lifts in the medicine department, one has been repaired, while the other lift is still inoperative, he said, adding that the remaining five lifts have not been functioning due to various reasons since years.
"When the Covid-19 crisis began, infected patients were admitted in three wards on the lower floors. We shifted critical wards on upper floors. Things become difficult when critical patients have to be brought to lower floors to undergo tests," Sukre said, adding relatives also need to help carry patients to upper floors on stretchers.
A fund of Rs 43 lakh has been sanctioned to repair the lift in the medicine department and tenders may be floated for this after the state Assembly session, the official said.
Despite follow ups with the PWD nothing much happened, and hence the medical facility will write to the district collector about the same, he said. Despite repeated attempts, the concerned official from the PWD was unreachable for a comment.