The organisations working with the survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster have charged Bhopal Memorial Hospital & Research Centre (BMHRC) with criminal negligence & mismanagement as 6 gas victims suffering from Covid-19 have died in the hospital’s isolation ward in the last 15 days.
In a letter addressed to the Supreme Court appointed Monitoring Committee the survivor groups have shared details of 6 gas victims who died in the isolation ward as there was no full-time doctor posted to administer and no treatment for Covid-19 was being administered to these patients. BMHRC is a super speciality hospital built to cater to the medical needs of Bhopal gas victims and is currently being run by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
While gas victims (COVID positive & suspect) are left to die in isolation ward of BMHRC, what is even more diabolical is that gas victims in need of ICU facilities, Pulmonary, Neurology, Gastro Surgery and Neuro Surgery are being refused admission in the hospital. Data obtained under RTI clearly shows that almost all of these departments have reduced admission of gas victims by 2 to 11 times when compared to non Covid times.
BMHRC’s motto: ‘In service of gas victims’ and this hospital is doing every disservice possible by wilfully ignoring the medical needs of the most vulnerable population to Covid-19. ICMR is supposed to be guiding the country in dealing with Covid-19, and in Bhopal they have completely failed to do so, said Rashida Bee of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationary Karmchari
Sangh.
The city is facing shortage of Oxygen & ICU facilities for Covid patients. Keeping the vulnerability of gas victims in view, BMHRC should have prepared for this crisis. We are hopeful that the Monitoring Committee will direct BMHRC to start a 40 ICU & HDU (high dependency unit) bed unit to cater to gas victims suffering from Covid-19 at the earliest, said Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group for Information & Action.
Data from 8 community health units of the ICMR run Bhopal Memorial Hospital & Research Centre (BMHRC) in Bhopal from 1998 to 2016 shows that 50.4% of gas affected patients suffer from Cardiovascular problems, 59.6% of them suffer from Pulmonary problems and 15.6% of them suffer from Diabetes.
Further as per the records of the Office of the Welfare Commissioner, Bhopal Gas Victims, 10,550 (1.84% of the gas exposed population) have been granted ex gratia compensation as Cancer patients. In March 2020 a letter addressed to DG, ICMR by the survivor groups had clearly stated that due to multi systemic damage caused as a result of the exposure to toxic gases of Union Carbide it would it would be safe to say that the over half a million Bhopalis exposed to Union Carbide’s gases are at least 5 times more vulnerable to Covid-19 than a general population. “Our letter which had categorically stated that unless urgent steps are taken by ICMR too many Bhopalis will suffer from Covid- 19 and die from it, fell on deaf ears. We painfully collect information of every city’s Covid-19 death and more than 60% of city’s Covid-19 deaths are of Bhopal gas victims whereas they only constitute 25% of the city's population”, said Nawab Khan of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangarsh Morcha.
The groups will bring up the dire situation of Bhopal gas victims vis a vis Covid-19 & BMHRC’s negligence in a Writ Petition pending before the MP High Court on October 7, 2020 where Secretary, Health have also been summoned to appear.
