Amid alarming rise of coronavirus cases in the CRPF ranks and their family members, the CRPF headquarters has directed all designated Covid hospitals under its command to admit family members and next of kin of the deceased personnel.
Till now, the family members of CRPF were dependent on already overstretched civil hospitals across the country for management of Covid-19 cases despite the paramilitary having a large number of hospitals with an authorised pool of about 740 doctors, including specialists and over 3,000 paramedical and nursing staff.
Facing shortage of essential medicines like Remdesivir and equipment like ventilators as also oxygen, the CRPF reiterated to the various formations across the country to liaise with the State police forces to acquire seized items on “zimmanama” basis.
The CRPF has also been relying on hospitals under the civil administration in various states for vaccination of serving personnel and their dependents as also the next of kin of martyred men and veterans.
Insiders in the paramilitary said, the ad hoc manner of handling Covid-19 cases has even demoralised the veterans who have to run from one hospital to another for vaccination as well as treatment of the viral disease despite serving the nation for decades.
On the contrary, other forces, like the ITBP, have been using their composite hospitals for both vaccination as well as treatment of their personnel and even opened the service for other paramilitary forces like the CRPF, sources said. The BSF on Wednesday said it has ramped up facilities at its Covid Care Centres at Chhawla and Tigri Camp in the national capital by adding 10 oxygen beds each at the two camps.
The CRPF had on May 7 written to all the formations to depute commandants to liaise with the State police for taking possession of life saving drugs and equipment seized by the police for use of its personnel. On Tuesday, the CRPF again shot off a letter stating, “Few offices have written letters to the State police, but merely writing down a letter would not suffice. An officer with good communication skills or a Medical officer be detailed to liaise in person. Please instruct all offices/units to make sincere efforts for proper utilisation of seized life saving Covid equipment.”
Through an order earlier this month, the CRPF had directed the medical directorate to allow admission of family members of the paramilitary personnel at dedicated Covid centres as they are facing shortage of beds in civil hospitals.
The CRPF topped the list of the paramilitary forces with the most number of infections with 22,216 personnel contracting the disease as on Monday and also recorded the most number of recoveries that stood at 19,235. The CRPF has suffered the most deaths with 114 casualties in its ranks due to Covid-19. It also has the highest number of active cases at 2,867.