BMC's hospital upgrade exposed: One ward boy for a hospital of 1000 patients

Enter at your risk thats what the warning sign outside Mumbais BMCrun hospitals should read Following incessant complaints about poor infrastructure including lack of wheelchairs and stretchers and the shortage of ward boys to transfer patients into wards midday conducted a test drive across key civic hospitals in the city And heres what we foundNair Hospital Mumbai CentralRelatives are seen assisting the patients to Nair Hospital Pics Bipin KokateAlso ReadMumbai Dilapidated Mulund Hospital Operational Despite BMC NoticeDuring a visit to the hospital this reporter found only two stretchers and a wheelchair in the casualty ward The hospital sees around 1000 patients daily The one ward boy sitting in the casualty area claimed that he was the only person on duty that dayAt any given point in time we have only one ward boy deputed here due to shortage of staff So whenever any critical patient comes to the hospital I assist in transferring them from the casualty ward to operation theatre or other units said the ward boy who refused to be identifiedRaju Sheikh who had come in a taxi with his 55yearold mother Fatima who was down with a urinary bladder infection was fortunate to find a stretcher However Sheikh and his cousins had to lift Fatima from one ward to another If I start transferring each and every person the emergency cases will suffer the ward boy said while justifying why he didnt assist SheikhAnother patient however was not so lucky Kushal Singhal 35 who was suffering from a severe stomach ache couldnt find himself a stretcher Kushal had to walk to the casualty ward with the help of his father Yuvraj and his mother I live in Tardeo and this is the closest hospital for us Each time I have come here Ive never found any ward boy to help shift patients They only take bodies to the mortuaryAlso ReadMumbai Haunted Civic Hospital Becomes Refuge For Drug Addicts Sex WorkersSion Hospital SionSion Hospital sees most patients from outside Mumbai who require specialty care Kalim Mulla 25 who had fever had to be transferred from a private hospital in Nerul on an emergency basis after his pressure dropped drastically His neighbour Umar Sheikh said I came to Sion Hospital for the first time with Kalim and for around 15 to 20 minutes I was clueless as to how to get help Later security guards in the casualty ward told me that there were no stretchers or wheelchairs Fortunately the ambulance in which we brought Kalim had a detachable stretcher We used that to shift him to the casualty wardOne ward boy for a hospital of 1000 patientsSpeaking on condition of anonymity one of the hospital personnel on duty told midday that the hospital had procured brand new wheelchairs and stretchersBut the administration doesnt provide them as they feel that the relatives will never return them Also there are no ward boys available to transfer patients This is usually the job of the relatives the staff saidKEM Hospital ParelWhile this hospital is the busiest public facility in the city only one wheelchair was found at the entrance with no ward boys or personnel to share information about the process or formalitiesA patient on a wheelchair waits for assistance at KEM HospitalOne of the onduty doctors said Patients relatives often complain to us about nonavailability of ward boys wheelchairs and stretchers There are two ward boys appointed to carry patients but we arent sure if they attend to each and every patient the doctor said on condition of anonymity If any accident victim or senior citizen patient arrives relatives or police carry them on their shoulders We should at least have basic infrastructure he addedWhen we tried to contact the onduty ward boy at night we were told that he had gone to transfer some patient to another ward Despite waiting for over 30 minutes he never showed upJJ Hospital BycullaJJ Hospital which is the only governmentrun medical facility in the city seemed to have better infrastructure than any of the civic hospitals Again while there were no stretchers or wheelchairs outside the casualty ward ward boys were appointed at each ward to transfer patients The casualty and emergency wards had five ward boys in total who were active even till as late as 3 amWe have ample number of stretchersDr Avinash Supe dean of Sion KEM and Nair hospitals refuted claims of shortage of wheelchairs and stretchers Every major BMC hospital has ample number of wheelchairs and stretchers In fact NGOs donate it to us at regular intervals But there should be some mechanism to monitor their movement to facilitate better patient management said SupeAs far as ward boys go he said that every hospital had five ward boys in the casualty and emergency room Sometimes they go to transfer patients But we will definitely look into this he said