nagpur despite shortage of beds for covid patients in the city for more than 15 days nagpur municipal corporation nmc is yet to bring into use its two dedicated covid health centres dchcs that were developed using government funds around 11 months agoafter an anticipated rise in cases of covid19 positive patients in april last year guardian minister nitin raut had got funds sanctioned by government for increasing number of beds the then municipal commissioner tukaram mundhe developed five dchcs having 470 beds including 50 icu bedsa 130bed new dchc was developed at kt nagar including some icu beds in may last year nmc converted its pachpaoli womens hospital into dchc with 110 beds also in may last year both these hospitals are not being used for covid patientsindira gandhi rugnalaya igr was renovated and developed into dchc with 130 beds including some icu beds the civic body has brought into use 110 beds here of which 75 were occupied on tuesdaynmc also renovated and developed sadar and isolation hospitals into dchc with 40 and 60 beds respectively sadar hospital is being utilized fully while and 32 beds are in use at isolation hospital 38 and 14 patients were admitted at these places on tuesday respectivelynmc is thus using only 182 of total 470 beds in five dchcs nmc officials informally stated the main reason for not bringing them into use was lack of doctors and nursing staff however nmc is not admitting it on recordmayor dayashankar tiwari told toi kt nagar dchc is in controversy and could not be started due to some technical problems two vaccination centres are in operation at pachpaoli womens hospital along with covid testing centre and a maternity wardnmc is making all efforts to provide beds for patients it developed a walkinoxygen centre at pachpaoli covid care centre last year this has been converted into dchc with 72 beds recently patients are already admitted at this facility he addedtiwari further said around 300400 patients admitted in gmch iggmch and private hospitals needed just oxygen and remdesivir therefore we are planning to convert pachpaoli dchc into a walkinremdesivir centre patients can be discharged from gmch iggmch and private hospitals and can be admitted here for oxygen and remdesivir and sent home once recovered this will help make more beds available for critical patients he said