Sewri TB hospital loses its only ambulance

Asia's largest tuberculosis hospital, the Sewri TB hospital, has been rendered rudderless as the corporation has taken away the only ambulance, asking the hospital to make use of the state's 108 ambulance service that is meant for emergencies.

However, most of the time, the hospital's plea to ferry it's TB patients to other hospitals is refused by the 108 service providers. This is causing much hindrance for the administration in providing good and emergency health care service to its patients.

108 refuse to provide ambulance
Sources in the TB hospital said that the BMC has asked them make use of the 108 service, but they refuse to provide ambulance because it is an air-conditioned and a TB patient can't be ferried in it. "According to the infection control program, air-condition ambulances can't be used to ferry TB patients as it will put other patients at risk of TB infection. In some cases when the 108 agrees to send ambulances, they later refuse to get the patient back to the hospital," said the source.

How bad is the situation?
Giving an example, a senior doctor from the hospital said that two days back a TB patient in his twenties was suppose to be sent to the KEM hospital. "He had TB in his brain and had become difficult to handle. When we called 108, they refused to even help hold the patient. The patient also didn't have a relative, a common problem faced in our hospital. We couldn't send the patient for reference and he eventually died," said the doctor.

Local ambulance not interested
When doctors pointed out the grave necessity of having an ambulance exclusively for the Sewri TB hospital, the additional municipal commissioner asked them to seeks the services of local ambulance providers during emergencies. "The AMC has asked us to take help of local ambulance providers by inviting quotation. But the profit margin for them is so low that no one is interested to come forward," said the doctor.
Sanjay Deshmukh, the additional municipal commissioner was not available for comments.

It's been a struggle for 2 months
"For last two months we are struggling to ferry our patients to other hospitals. Sewri TB Hospital only treats pulmonary TB and often refer patient to either LTMG Sion Hospital or KEM hospital-Parel for specialised check ups," said a senior doctor from Sewri TB Hospital.
The 1,000-bedded Sewri TB hospital has, on an average, 800 patients being admitted every day out of which six to seven patients need to be sent to other hospitals for reference.