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PUNE, NOVEMBER 5-11, 2016 | www.thegoldensparrow.com
Living on the
FRINGE
WITH LOVE FROM IRAN
PG 8-9
DRESS TO IMPRESS PUNE, NOV
arrow.com thegoldensp 5-11, 2016 | www.
PG 14
A never-ending foodie love affair See p07
With love from Iran
See p08-09
Sumptous meals on wheels at maiden food truck fest
See p11
TGS LIFE
Dial 1033 ambulances gather rust at BVG office
It’s an issue that has been hanging fire since 2012, even though the residents of the 34 fringe villages will benefit hugely from the merger of the villages in the PMC, from the provision of basic civic amenities, to the curbing of rampant illegal constructions that threaten the very air that people breathe. Is the state government’s delay of the merger fuelled by political and civic polls-tinged considerations? See p06-07
Charity does not begin at home at this clinic
Below poverty line Solapur man with gangrenous infection refused admission by Ruby Hall Clinic, medical social workers stating that poor patients were not admitted after 5 pm BY DNYANESHWAR BHONDE @dnyanesh1 Ruby Hall Clinic, a premier charitable hospital of Pune, shows none of the charity while dealing with poor patients. On October 27, the clinic refused to admit a man from Solapur patient who had developed gangrene in his leg. In fact, the Ruby Hall Clinic bouncers evicted him from the hospital at around midnight, and left him to fend for himself on the pavement, freezing in the cold, even as his infected leg caused him excruciating pain. The patient was eventually admitted to the hospital next morning after the charity commissionerate had intervened. The patient’s son has written to the collector and charity commissioner, demanding that they file a case against the hospital trustees as per sections of the Bombay Public Trust Act 1950, for denying treatment to a Below Poverty Line (BPL) patient. Nana Bhiva Pandhare, 55, of Gavli vasti, Laxmi Peth, Solapur is a daily wage farm worker and a BPL patient. He had developed an infection in his leg after an injury caused
The ailing Nana Pandhare and his son Dhula make a forlorn sight on the pavement outside Ruby Hall Clinic
by an iron screw while working on a farm. The wound had not healed after primary treatment at Solapur. Pandhare came to Pune along with his wife Sudamati and young son Dhula, and he was admitted to Sassoon Hospital in the last week of October. Dis-satisfied with the treatment at Sassoon Hospital, Pandhare and his family decided to shift to a private hospital. Dhula informed the medical superintendent of Sassoon Hospital about their decision. Since Nana was a BPL patient, the superintendent told them to go to the charity commissioner’s office on Dhole Patil Road for the process to avail of free treatment at a private hospital. The charity officials verified all of Pandhare’s documents and issued a letter to Ruby Hall Clinic, asking them to admit the patient under the Indigent Patient Fund (IPF) quota, which is compulsory for all 57 charitable hospitals in Pune. After completing the formalities, Pandhare and his family went to Ruby Hall Clinic at around 5 pm on October 27. “The hospital’s medical social workers refused to admit my father, saying that IPF patients are not admitted to the hospital after 5 pm, and asked us to leave. Continued on p04
After completion of the MumbaiVadodara national highway pilot project, seven of the 20 ambulances are lying unused for six months See p04