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Mumbai: Patients left in the lurch, as Bhabha hospital hospital closes admissions

Over a thousand patients seek outpatient department (OPD) care for gynaecology, surgery, ENT, ophthalmology, general medicine, orthopaedics and dermatology at Bhabha Hospital each day. The population of Kurla is close to nine lakh persons, making it one of the most populated ward in Mumbai. However, health infrastructure in the area is smug.

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Kurla’s Khan Bahadur Hormasji Kharshedji Bhabha Hospital is in a state of utter disrepair, and is shutting down, creating distress for patients in the neighbourhood, (below) Ailing Hiba, all of 15 months, in the arms of her father, Riyaz and (right) Gopal Konde shows his broken arm.
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The atmosphere in Kurla's Khan Bahadur Hormasji Kharshedji Bhabha Hospital was tense on Friday. The doctors were trying very hard not to let any new patients be admitted in the hospital, and the helpless ones were being asked to fend for themselves. On any given day, there are between 100 and 150 patients seeking admission in the hospital from neighbouring areas.

Over a thousand patients seek outpatient department (OPD) care for gynaecology, surgery, ENT, ophthalmology, general medicine, orthopaedics and dermatology at Bhabha Hospital each day. The population of Kurla is close to nine lakh persons, making it one of the most populated ward in Mumbai. However, health infrastructure in the area is smug.

The area is ravaged with slums, burgeoning population and a bevy of quacks and bogus doctors. Problems like malnutrition and high maternal mortality plague the region. In such dire circumstances, the patients who solely rely on Kurla Bhabha hospital for treatment had no idea that the hospital was shutting down. They were, unsuspectingly, caught in a lurch.

All planned surgeries on Friday were cancelled and operation theatres in the old building bore a forlorn look.

The hospital is in a shambles what with the crumbling ceilings and leaking roofs. The hospital conducts over 25 major or minor surgeries and deliveries every day. "No surgeries or deliveries have been conducted since morning on Friday. There is a serious issue of leakage in the OT complex which leads to accumulation of fungi and pores on the walls. The operation theaters are vulnerable hubs of dangerous bacterial infections," said a senior nurse from the OT complex.

On Friday, half of the patients in the hospital were either turned away or given discharge. "At the moment, we have only 55 patients in the hospital. Once they recover, they will be given discharge," said Dr Vidya Thakur, in charge, BMC peripheral hospitals (east zone).

"The hospital was working at one third of its capacity for want of structural repairs. The repairs will take at least 12 months to finish," said Sanjay Deshmukh, additional commissioner (health), BMC.

While Bhabha Hospital has one ambulance in the campus, another has been asked for from the BMC to be kept on standby to ferry emergency patients to other hospitals. "We are readying ambulances to transport emergency cases that may come to us, to nearby civic hospitals of the eastern suburbs, such as Rajawadi and Muktabai in Ghatkopar, and Shatabdi in Govandi," said Dr Thakur.

"The health infrastructure cell has asked us to vacate the hospital building. We are in the process of vacating it," said Dr Mahendra Wadiwalla, chief, BMC-run peripheral hospitals.

The adjacent newly-built OPD building which caters to patients who visit doctors for consultation will not be shut down.

Case studies

'They should at least admit patients in emergency'
At least four infants were waiting in the arms of their mothers outside the casualty ward, burning with fever or afflicted with diarrhoea, for want of treatment. “I have given a call to the paediatrician to come and have a look at the children,” said the casualty medical officer. Some patients had been thronging the ward urging for admission since 9am. At 3pm, 15-month-old baby girl Hiba was finally taken under the paediatrician's wing.

Hiba's father Riyaz (36) was heartbroken when, earlier, he was asked to take his ailing infant to the BMC-run Sion Hospital. Hiba was continuously passing motions. Her eyes were droopy and she kept falling unconscious again and again. “I am scared for my girl. Even if they are shutting admissions, they should admit patients in the emergency ward,” Riyaz, a resident of Kurla who works in a meat shop, told dna.

On Friday, doctors were asked by the administrative authorities to not admit any patients at all, as a result of which patients were being turned away. “Instructions to stop all admissions at one go were not issued. There has been a miscommunication and I will inquire with the medical superintendent regarding the issue,” said Sanjay Deshmukh, BMC's additional commissioner (health).

“Serious patients should be admitted. Patients who are willingly wanting to be shifted to other hospitals should be given that option. We are facing teething troubles, and this will continue for a few days,” said a senior doctor in the hospital.

They have cancelled my surgery: Driver with broken arm
The male orthopaedic ward in Kurla's Bhabha Hospital had close to seven occupants on Friday. One of them was 50-year-old Gopal Konde who sat at a cot with a broken left hand. Nonchalant about his plastered hand, he wobbled his forearm a little to show the extent of his injury. “My hand cracked four days ago after it got stuck in the handle of a bus. The bus started moving and I was dragging along with it for a distance on the road. I have suffered a major fracture, which the hospital doctors have been reluctant to fix,” said Konde. He was promised that his surgery will occur on Friday. After news of the hospital's closing down spread like wildfire, the operation theatre complex was rendered non-functional.

A harrowed Konde, who is a driver with a private car company, does not know what to do now. “While earlier the doctors were dilly-dallying on fixing a date for my surgery, they later said they will operate me on Friday. Finally, they have cancelled my surgery and asked me to seek treatment elsewhere,” said Konde.

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