UT News Service | Imphal August 6: A pregnant woman from Noney District (Longmai) on Thursday died outside the entrance of a hospital on being denied admission to hospitals even after fervent appeal by the family member attempts in hospitalising the pregnant woman in Imphal. Manipur Women organizaton and student bodies have raised concerns on the inability to provide proper medical facilities to Non-COVID patients at hospitals.
This incident coincides with several appeals made by the public, concerned doctors in frontline, women organization and student bodies in Manipur. Sobita Mangsatabam, Secretary, Women Action for Development (WAD) on a press release on August 4th, expressed discontent on the untimely death of pregnant women in Manipur during pandemic. WAD expressed sorrow over the death of Longjam Basanti (34) and Thoudam (O) Malemnganbi, both from Thoubal district during this pandemic while giving birth. WAD in the press release stated there are thousands of women who are pregnant in Manipur, are now mostly panic-stricken on whether they would have a proper medical facilities while delivering their child during this crisis of pandemic. A range of urgent intervention on the matter was demanded to the Manipur government.
A joint press statement by AMSU, ATSUM, ANSAMKSO-GHQ, MSF, DESA KSA, SUK and AIIMS expressed similar concern. The inability to provide proper medical care to Non-COVID patients at hospitals across the state has caused serious concerns the student bodies said.
Government and private hospitals disallowing admission of Non-COVID patients, have caused unfortunate incidents in the state such as the pregnant woman who passed away on Thursday early morning. Cases related to emergency accidents, delivery cases, cardiac related cases and especially patients from interior parts of the state, it said. The inability to test COVID-19 in containment area is very unfortunate, the students’ bodies said.
The student bodies demanded a proper and effective policy to ensure that other Non-COVID patients receive equal treated in the hospitals and appealed the government to keep in check front-liners to prevent the spread of the virus, the statement added.
As of Thursday, Manipur state has lost eight patients to COVID-19.