07 October,2010 09:46 AM IST | | Alifiya Khan
From today, MiD DAY begins a series that chronicles the state of affairs at public hospitals, bringing forth issues that confront patients there
MiD DAY does a hygiene inspection of Sassoon and YCM hospitals, finds cleanliness a casualty at former
From cleanliness to shortage of drugs and lack of beds to faulty equipment, often there is much that ails public hospitals. In this multi-part series, MiD DAY surveys public hospitals in and around the city to bring forth the issues these face. We shall bring you a detailed health report of hospitals and pinpoint what ails them. Today, we take a look at the hygiene aspect in two of the biggest public hospitals, Sassoon General Hospital in the city and YCM Hospital in Pimpri. Au00a0patient sleeps dangerously close to used cotton swabs Au00a0dog finds shelter in the OPD section The unclean floor in one part of Sassoon
Patient's name: YCM Hospital
Diagnosis: Obsessed about cleanliness
Status: Extremely fit
Description of check-up
There could not have been a greater contrast than between Sassoon and YCM Hospital when it comes to cleanliness. While at Sassoon hospital we saw people covering their noses and in a hurry to walk out of the premises, at YCM hospital you could see people checking out their images on the spotlessly clean tiles.
From a state-of-the-art outpatient department, pleasant and airy patient waiting areas, spotlessly clean floors and several Class IV workers continuously pouring out disinfectants and mopping floors, this public hospital could give private hospitals a run for their money.
As we entered each of the wards, we were pleasantly surprised to see there were no eyesores like filthy tables or broken beds; the wards were well maintained. In the four hours that we spent looking around, we did not encounter a single cat or dog within the hospital ufffd and there were cockroaches in the wards.
So clean were the floors that we saw a lot of patient's relatives sprawled on them without mats and even eating freely off them.
Nanda Datta Tribhagai, whose two-and-half-year-old granddaughter Kishori Lande has been admitted to the hospital for 15 days, said she had been sleeping on the floor each night and had no complaints.
"The hospital is spotlessly clean, we haven't seen any litter or cockroaches," said she.
As far as cleanliness goes, Sassoon hospital could take a few lessons from YCM.
Patient's name: Sassoon General Hospital
Diagnosis: Suffering from an acute illness called Lack of hygiene
Status: Critical, needs immediate intervention
Description of check-up
Entering the hospital premises, the first thing you do is cover your nose. Not that there is a foul smell around, but it just seems the right thing to do as every person has his or her nose covered with a handkerchief or dupatta. Curious, we stop a person, Bilal Shaikh from Solapur, to ask him why people had their noses covered. Shaikh, whose sister had been admitted to the ladies' ward, said he was doing it so as to not catch an infection as the hospital was extremely dirty.
As we toured the hospital, we came to the unhappy conclusion that Shaikh was indeed right.
While in one ward we found that the wastepaper baskets were overflowing with rotting refuse, at another place we saw cockroaches on a patient's medicine table. Worse, the mesh on windows in many wards was broken, allowing cockroaches to easily enter wards.
Subhash Vishnu Ombase, a driver with a private bus who had been admitted to the G ward on the first floor two weeks ago, said cockroaches made his body a playground when he rested at night.
"I wanted to sleep because my body was aching and the doctors had given me some medicines, but small cockroaches kept bothering me. I even complained to one of the doctors, but nobody paid heed to my request.
A boy said he would speak to the senior doctor and disappeared. I couldn't do much about it," said Ombase.
At some places, patients who had come seeking treatment were sleeping in the vicinity of used cotton swabs, syringes and other waste that could be highly infectious.
The hospital also is home to numerous cats and dogs who roam freely in the wards looking for and often overturning packed waste paper baskets.
Besides unmopped floors, litter everywhere and filthy tables to keep food, patients and their relatives complained that Class IV workers rarely turned up for work and very rude if told to clean up.
"I don't even like going into the ward, it's so dirty. The cleaners are hardly there and if we tell them anything they say this is public and not private hospital so we shouldn't have any airs," said Ahmednagar resident Babasaheb Bhoskar, whose 22-year-old daughter is admitted for treatment.
In short, merely clearing cobwebs or replacing faulty tubelights is not enough. Sassoon, which is aspiring to acquire an AIIMS-like status, has a long way to go before it can even stake such a claim.
