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BMC-run hospitals paint a scary, stained picture

Hospitals assumed to be safe havens for patients are turning into hellholes. A walk around the premises of BMC-run hospitals paints a scary picture — red blobs and sprays of spit adorning walls and walkways.

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Hospitals assumed to be safe havens for patients are turning into hellholes. A walk around the premises of BMC-run hospitals paints a scary picture — red blobs and sprays of spit adorning walls and walkways.
dna correspondents Somita Pal, Maitri Porecha and Tanea Bandyopadhyay visited some of city's busiest hospitals to take stock of the situation, and came out nauseated. It's evident that with at least half a dozen spit spots in each hospital, these places have turned into incubation centres for bacteria that cause deadly air-borne diseases.

Rajawadi hospital, Ghatkopar East

A recce revealed at least 50 spots of red blobs of tobacco-laden spit sprayed in a variety of designs and sizes. No corner was bereft of the perennial rust-coloured patches — crevices in the gates, edges of potted plants, hospital grounds and bottom of tree trunks.

The hospital gate is replete with spit. Walk inside and the cobbled pathways have tiny spots of paan and gutkha spit on them. Relatives of patients admitted there, 29-year-old Aslam and 65-year-old Raoji were even seen spitting unabashedly in the hospital's open premises. When confronted, they hurriedly apologised and tried to leave. On being asked from where he gets gutkha, which was banned along with scented tobacco by the state government two years ago, Aslam said, "We buy it from the black market for four-five times the original rate, or we buy separate ingredients and prepare the mixture ourselves."

"It is often the patients' relatives who spit and dirty the hospital," said a cleaner in the male surgery ward, where the window railings as well as the area outside the ward are laden with red spit marks. Talking about the hospital being grossly understaffed, a ward boy said, "Each ward is supposed to be assigned two ward boys, but we are functioning at 50% the capacity. Every week, we are provided with five litres of sodium hypochlorite to disinfect linen and ward floors, but this quantity is insufficient to even clean the hospital grounds."

KEM hospital, Parel

The best medical college in Mumbai and a super-specialty hospital that attracts up to a thousand patients everyday is not in the best of shape. In spite of vigorous clean-up drives undertaken there since the start of Swacch Bharat Abhiyan last year, the premises are filled with huge patches of red tobacco-laden spit, beginning with the gate itself. The passageways are mysteriously clean, but don't let that fool you. A peep from the first-floor balcony of the main building reveals that the back of the building is thick with red spit marks.
"As people are banned from spitting in passageways, they spit straight out of the balcony," said a security guard at the hospital.
The irony is that at every hundred metres the passageways sport signages appealing people to spit in spittoons, but there aren't any in the passageways, except for two on the ground floor. While Rajawadi hospital has boards warning offenders that they will be fined Rs100 if caught spitting, here there is no such warning either.

Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, Sion

Being close to Dharavi, Asia's largest slum, the hospital, which is one of the three tertiary care centres in city run by the BMC, has been plagued with the problem of spitting and littering like any other.
The hospital gets more than 800 people daily in its outpatient department (OPD) and has one of the busiest emergency care departments. The most common spots people have spat on are staircases in the OPD building.

While the administration has strategically placed dustbins and posters to educate and warn people against doing this, hardly anybody is seen following the norms. Doctors say things were in control when BMC clean-up marshals used to actively walk around the campus and fine people. With the marshals' contract coming to an end and their services being discontinued, the fear factor among people is missing.
Dean Dr Avinash Supe said, "Spitting is a behavioural problem. We keep trying at our end to discourage people from spitting in hospital premises. Though we haven't succeeded completely, instances have lessened. This has been possible because of clean-up marshals. On an average, around Rs70,000 used to be collected as fine every month."

Nair hospital, Mumbai Central

On entering, there's a sign from the dean warning against smoking, and a few other dos and don'ts, but nothing against spitting. One wonders why because the hospital's staircases and corridors are splattered with tobacco-laden paan stains, as are the walls and floor.
The wards, however, are kept quite clean, and a nurse said the doctor in charge is responsible for the cleanliness. However, patients are not confined to a ward all the time and have to move around for tests and surgeries, and are often also encouraged to walk for some exercise.
When asked if there's a supervisor to keep an eye on spitting anywhere in the hospital, a security guard said, "Earlier, there used to be clean-up marshals who would check this, but then the BMC changed the rules and they stopped coming."
Even though, there was is a BMC rule that says that anyone caught spitting must cough up a fine of Rs100, the rule is poorly implemented.

The role model
JJ hospital, Byculla
This one has been a role model with respect to cleanliness for all public hospitals. The credit goes to dean Dr TP Lahane, who has constantly been involved in bringing different ways in which to discourage people from spitting.
Lahane says...
I took over as dean in 2010. Cleanliness is very important in hospitals to keep infections in control, and spitting by patients and relatives was rampant here. To discourage people from doing that, we first painted the walls in bright colours and put tiles. This was followed by putting up photos of gods.
However, gods' photos in places where people generally spit only led them spit in some different spot. We then introduced flower pots. We were surprised that people spit on them too.
After trying all ways I could think of, I involved the staff and doctors. Ward boys were instructed to frisk patients and their relatives and take away tobacco packets. I lectured those caught and educated them about how they are not only endangering their lives but also spreading diseases. This changed things. Awareness is the only way to make people stop spitting.
While the spitting is now 5% of what it used to be, we are aiming for zero per cent. We have also started fining offenders. Besides this, we have made the staff accountable. The cleanest ward or department is appreciated with an award on August 15 ever year.

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