BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and BJP’s candidate for Puri Lok Sabha seat Sambit Patra on Thursday slammed the state government for lack of facility to treat burn patients at the Sri Jagannath Medical College and Hospital in Puri.
The senior leaders said the death of three persons with more than 30 sustaining serious burn injuries due to explosion of firecrackers during Chandan Yatra of Lord Jagannath has exposed the tall claims of BJD government about improving the standards of healthcare in the state.
Talking to mediapersons during his campaign in Simulia under Bhadrak parliamentary constituency, Pradhan said the state government utilised hundreds of crores of rupees in the Jagannath temple heritage project but could not think of improving the medical facilities in the city. Devotees who sustained burn injuries in the mishap on Wednesday were shifted to hospitals of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack due to lack of facilities to treat burn patients in Puri, he alleged.
In a separate statement, Patra said lives of the burn patients could have been saved had they been provided timely treatment. He said shifting and admission of many patients in hospitals of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack were delayed due to non-availability of adequate numbers of ambulances. He urged the government to take immediate steps to open a burn unit in Puri hospital.