Inaugurated a week ago by the chief minister, a 1,800-bed Dedicated COVID Health Centre (CHC) in Mulund is lying unused for want of medical staff. This at a time when COVID-19-affected citizens are struggling to find ICU beds — the facility has 215 of these. Built by the CIDCO, the facility is also supposed to house 500 patients from Thane. According to the BMCs official data, out of the 22,821 beds in the city, 10,081 are vacant. The Mulund CHC has 1,560 isolation beds, 215 ICU beds and 75 beds for dialysis patients. The facility was established to cater to residents of the eastern suburbs. Planned in May and expected to be operational by June 8, the facility was inaugurated only on July 7 by CM Uddhav Thackeray. "We had expected the facility to start functioning soon. It will help people belonging to the lower and middle classes in Thane and Mulund. But surprisingly, nothing happened," said a BMC official on condition of anonymity. "The facility is still waiting for medical staff and patients as well," the official said." BMCs bed capacity is spread across CHCs and CCCs. But the real fight is for ICU beds — the capacity being 1,738 and availability being 240, and for ventilators — capacity being 1,054, availability being 134. Officials say Mulund has around 350 beds in its civic facilities of which 250 are unoccupied. President of the Maharashtra Navnirman Senas Mulund unit, Rajesh Chavhan, said, "Everyday T ward is witnessing 90 to 100 cases. This facility will help. Right now, patients either have to go to Nair hospital if there are no beds or to private ones, who charge hefty bills." Mihir Kotecha, the local MLA has written to the CM regarding the delay in the operationalisation of the CHC. "The facility was supposed to be ready in June, it is a months delay. Dialysis and ICU beds are not ready. Citizens are being forced to go to costly private facilities," Kotecha said. The assistant commissioner of T Ward, Kishore Gandhi said, "We are arranging the medical staff for the CHC and will operationalise the facility Friday onwards. Currently, the situation in T ward is under control. Till then, the facility can be provided to ICU and dialysis patients infected by COVID-19." 215 No. of ICU beds at the CHC 1,560 No. of isolation beds at the CHC Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news

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