Three resident doctors and four nurses of BYL Nair Hospital have been infected with tuberculosis in the last four months.
The hospital, located in Mumbai Central, is one of the three BMC-run tertiary care hospitals.
A resident doctor from Nair Hospital’s Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors said:
“Unclean environment is one of the reasons our health workers are becoming prone to TB and other infection. Unlike Parel’s KEM Hospital and LTMG Sion hospital, we have less workload and patient flow. Still, we are not able to maintain cleanliness.”
This year, 11 health-care providers have been diagnosed with TB. “We have not been provided with a proper mask. We are overworked and lack nutritious food. With low immunity and cleanliness issues, we become prone to TB infection,” said another resident doctor.
Dean of BYL Nair Hospital Dr Ramesh Bharmal, who joined the hospital in July, said: “According to national incidence reported, our medical staff being infected with TB is not very significant.
However, we will start high-protein diet for our medical staff in the next 10 days.”
Refuting allegations that Nair hospital is unclean, Dr Bharmal claimed that it is one of the cleanest BMC hospitals. “Nair is one of the cleanest public hospitals. We see as many as 400 outdoor patients and admit 1,200 on an average daily,” he added.
The hospital has an average annual budget of Rs142 crore. Authorities said the absence of administrative head for a long time has affected its proper utilisation. “Since 2008, we didn’t have a long-serving dean. After Dr Ravi Ranavare passed away in February 2011, we didn’t have a dean till July 2013. This has an impact on the working of the hospital,” said a senior doctor, requesting anonymity.
STAIRCASE OR LOO?
The 10-storey building with casualty on the ground floor has no toilet facility on upper floors. The patients and their relatives have to come down to the basement to use the toilet. As this requires a lot of effort, people have converted the staircase region into a loo, making the atmosphere unhygienic. “It is a major design problem. We have plans to modify it soon,” said Dean of BYL Nair Hospital Dr Ramesh Bharmal.
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