No room for new resident doctors at Sion hospital

Sion hospital has no place to accommodate the 147 resident doctors who joined on Monday. The resident doctors’ quarters are already occupied ones who had joined earlier. At present, 15 resident doctors live in a 10x10ft room.

The hospital on Monday told the new recruits to adjust in the rooms of their seniors. With space being a major issue, the authorities plan to hire abandoned classrooms of a civic school in Vikhroli to accommodate doctors. They also plan to convert badminton court in the resident doctors’ quarters into dormitory.

Presently 500 resident doctors are living in 182 rooms. With the new recruitments the figure has gone up to 647 resident doctors.
While the newly joined resident doctors are trying to adjust to the space crunch, the dean Dr Sandhya Kamat is on vacation. “She had promised us a solution to the issue earlier. But no arrangement has been made and the dean has gone on vacation for 15,” said a MARD member.

The authorities were checking abandoned rooms of civic schools in the neighbouring areas. Doctors say a proposal to construct a new hostel building has been gathering dust for several years and they are forced to live in the barracks. “With the new resident doctors joining in, 15-16 resident doctors are forced to live in one room. We work round the clock and don’t even have decent space to rest,” said a resident doctor.

Dr Suleman Merchant, the acting dean of Sion hospital said, “There are makeshift arrangement in badminton court. For the long term, we are looking at a civic school in Vikhroli. We will furnish the three floors of the school and adjust medical students there.”

Dr Merchant added, “There are several proposals that unfortunately didn’t work out for us. I feel bad for the doctors as they are the backbone of  this institution.”