PUNE: The Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital (YCMH) has been rocked by a third controversy in a month, and second in only a week, after a video surfaced showing a senior doctor holding a liquor party in the postmortem department. Pimpri Chinchwad municipal commissioner Vijay Suryawanshi has suspended the doctor in question, medical officer Dr Vaibhav Mhaske.In the past five weeks, two viral videos have sparked a firestorm of criticism against YCMH. The most recent video showed a homeless patient and the stretcher he was strapped to falling out of a moving ambulance. An earlier video showed a raucous dhol-tasha performance on the hospital’s premises on Sept 22.In Friday’s suspension order, Suryawanshi stated that Mhaske was found intoxicated while on duty and disrupted essential services, such as patient care, surgeries and other critical hospital services.The action follows the circulation of a video reportedly recorded on Oct 3, when a daily-wage worker from Dharashiv district suffered an accident on a construction site in Thergaon and was brought to YCMH, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.The video shows the family of the deceased requesting an apparently intoxicated Mhaske to release the documents required to claim the body. A bottle of liquor is visible on a table beside him.One person who claimed to be a friend of the deceased, told TOI that the video was recorded after the family was made to wait overnight to receive the body. The man also alleged that hospital staff demanded a payment to immediately release the body.“When the family approached the postmortem department for the necessary documents, they were told the body would be handed over only in the morning. If they wanted it at night, they would have to pay,” he alleged.The video has since been circulated widely on social media, triggering demands for strict action.Activist Maruti Bhapkar said the incident had tarnished the hospital’s image and called for a detailed investigation. “The staff involved should be dismissed from service to send a clear message that such conduct will not be tolerated,” he said.The video has shifted focus on the alleged demands for payment to release bodies at night, with several social media users sharing similar experiences. Child rights activist Yamini Adbe claimed YCMH staff told her friend to pay Rs 27,000 to release a body at night.
