As government and civic hospitals in Mumbai struggle against an invasion by the animal kingdom, state-run facility in city sheds its 'overrun by cats' image with some hired professional help
As government and civic hospitals in Mumbai struggle against an invasion by the animal kingdom, state-run facility in city sheds its 'overrun by cats' image with some hired professional help
In Mumbai, dogs may be biting deans of civic hospitals and rats chewing off the toes of patients admitted to state-run healthcare facilities, but the Sassoon General Hospital in the city can proudly claim to have rid itself of the cat menace that it was infamous for till a couple of months ago. All thanks to a few Pied Pipers.
No cats: The government-run Sassoon General Hospital is now cat-free
Infamous for the number of cats on the hospital premises that resulted in a lot of criticism from seniors as well as reports in the media on the unhygienic conditions, the hospital authorities hired a private agency to tackle the problem.
MiD DAY's Aug 6 report on the rat menace in a Mumbai hospital
Professional help
Dr Renu Bharadwaj, then acting dean of the hospital, confirmed that 'Pied Pipers' were indeed hired for the job.
"We were especially worried as the cats were seen in the paediatric, gynaecological and burns wards, which are very sensitive areas.
The first concern in the burns wards is that patients are already immunocompromised and any type of secondary infection can be serious, even fatal. Also, an important concern was the presence of cats in those wards where infants and kids were kept," said Bharadwaj. "Though no incident was reported, cats are known to carry off kids and we were worried for their safety."
She said though hospital staff had tried getting rid of the cats, the felines would eventually land up in the wards again. As the cats were back even after shooing them off, she said a professional agency had to be engaged. About 10-12 cats were caught and moved off the campus. Despite repeated enquires, neither she nor Dr D G Kulkarni, the medical superintendent, could give the amount paid to the private agency to remove the cats from the campus.
"Now we don't have complaints about cats on the premises. Doing this job was important as the hospital environment has to be sterile and we also have to maintain our reputation in front of visiting dignitaries, for whom seeing cats in wards might not paint a pretty picture," said Kulkarni.
It happens in Mumbai hospitals
A couple of weeks ago, a stray dog bit Dr Sanjay Oak, dean of KEM hospital. Oak had to take three injections for the dog bite.u00a0Last week, he admitted to getting embarrassed before visiting dignitaries from Israel, who pointed to the stray dogs on the campus. Similar incidents have been reported from Mumbai's civic-run Nair and Sion hospitals too. On August 6, MiD DAY reported on a diabetic patient, admitted for loss of sensitivity in foot, whose toes got chewed off by rats at the state-runu00a0 St George Hospital.
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