Heavy deployment of police has been put in place at a civic-run hospital in Thane city of Maharashtra after an overnight drama in which a group of people gathered there and questioned the authorities alleging death of five persons in a day due to "negligence", officials said on Friday.

The authorities of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwa, where the incident took place late Thursday night, however denied the charge saying that only one patient died there during the day as against the allegation of five fatalities.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and MLA Jitendra Awhad also visited the hospital and alleged the five patients died due to negligence and also claimed that the hospital pretends to treat patients even after their death to make money.

"A group of around hundred people gathered at the civic-run hospital around 10.30 pm on Thursday. They questioned the hospital authorities over the death of patients accusing them of negligence. However, no untoward incident occurred," a personnel of Thane police control room told PTI.

After the incident, heavy deployment of police was put in place at the hospital, he said.

NCP leader Awhad issued a statement on Friday morning, in which he alleged, "As many as five persons died at the hospital in a single day (on Thursday) due to the negligence of the medical staff. While on the one hand, patients are not being admitted to the hospital on the pretext of paucity of beds, the deceased ones are kept in the ICU for hours." Writing about it on X, formerly known as Twitter, Awhad said, "One woman called me saying that her husband was not receiving proper medical treatment at the hospital. When I went there, I came to know that her husband was being treated in the general ward. I was then informed that he has been shifted to the ICU." "When I went to the ICU, I was told that the patient had already died, but doctors and the hospital administration was treating him for five hours. The woman was not informed about her husband's death. When I questioned the doctors about it, they could not answer," he said.

Awhad alleged that the hospital run by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) was looting patients by issuing inflated bill. The hospital is making money by falsely treating patients even after their death, he claimed.

When contacted, TMC's Additional Municipal Commissioner in-charge of medical services Sandeep Malvi told PTI that five patients did not die at the hospital in a single day.

"One of the patients undergoing treatment at the hospital was very serious. He died during treatment. Although his relatives did not question the hospital, others blamed the medical staff and made it a big issue," he said.

The hospital takes utmost care of the patients and ensures that each and every patient is attended properly, he said.

"The load at the hospital has increased manifold. The ICU which has a capacity of 50 patients, handles more than 70 patients," Malvi said.

In a recent meeting presided over by Thane District Guardian Minister Shamburaj Desai, MLA Sanjay Kelkar took up the issue of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwa, saying that the administration needs to improve its situation, failing which the situation might slip out of hand.

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