Dedicated Covid Hospital of Dhanbad at Jagjivan Nagar, which witnessed a series of protests over gross mismanagement, is expected to witness a complete overhaul in a day or two.

To carry out the task, the Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) management, upon the instructions of the Dhanbad district administration, has hired a new agency, Frontline, to sanitise the hospital. The agreement for the work is likely to finalised on Friday and the sanitization process is expected to start on Monday.

Doctors and other health workers have been protesting gross mismanagement, including poor quality of food, lack of cleanliness and sanitation, lack of infrastructural facilities such as furniture and recreational items like a TV.

Meanwhile, in a related development, the dialysis facility, which was lying suspended at BCCL for the past several months, was restored on Thursday night to be used by Covid patients, as per the instructions of district administration.

Notably, Dhanbad DC Uma Shankar Singh on July 21 had directed the BCCL management to resume the dialysis by July 30 and also instructed three private hospitals of Dhanbad, including Asharfi Hospital Limited, Asian Dwarkadas Jalan Superspeciality Hospital and Pragati Hospital and Research Center, to reserve two beds in their dialysis units for Covid patients.

He had also pulled up one of the private hospitals for denying the dialysis facility to a Covid patient and served notice to it asking why action should not be initiated against it under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

Talking to media earlier in the day during the release of 22 patients from the Dedicated Covid Hospital of Dhanbad, the deputy commissioner said, “All the complaints at the Dedicated Covid Hospital are likely to be addressed within 2-3 days as we had a talk with the BCCL management over the issue and they have taken some steps to improve the facilities”

Elaborating the steps, chairman-cum-managing director of BCCL P.M. Prasad told The Telegraph Online: “Though we had already taken a series of steps like allotting the contract of catering in the hospital to a reputed agency 10 days before and also installed TV sets in hospital as well as doctors quarters, some complaints regarding the poor state of cleanliness and sanitation were being made. Therefore, we have decided to engage a new agency with proven credentials, which is already carrying the same work in Patliputra Medical College and Hospital and things are likely to improve in a day or two.”

Notably, patients of Covid Hospital first engaged in sloganeering, demonstrations and then threatened to go on a strike on July 7 over insects found in cooked food served in morning breakfast. This was followed by another agitation carried out by a group of 23 journalists admitted to the hospital on July 8 over irregular and poor quality of food and lack of cleanliness. The Covid hospital patients had again on July 21 staged a demonstration in the hospital protesting against the old complain of lack of cleanliness and non-serving of drinking water to them during the previous night.

This apart, the doctors serving in the hospital had demanded furniture like chairs and tables on July 14 and again complained about the lack of cleanliness in the residential quarters allotted to them on July 15.

Though the BCCL administration had changed the catering contractor immediately after complaints about the food quality and also installed furniture in the hospital as well as the doctors’ quarters, a new agency was hired after perpetual complaints of cleanliness and sanitation.