Neurosurgery OT played host to booze parties for a year

Ward boy and sweeper admit to using OT as bar; dean says action will be taken

Enquires into the discovery of alcohol bottles in the neurosurgery operation theatre at JJ hospital have revealed the names of two staffers who admitted to misusing the OT. Yesterday, as MiD DAY had reported, the hospital authorities were taken aback when they found that the otherwise sterile room doubled up asu00a0u00a0a bar for ward boy Kishore Parab and sweeper Shivram Waghela, who regularly held booze parties there since the last one year.


Party zone? Liquor bottles were found in the OT where brain and spine
surgeries were performed. file pic

"I am stunned that such dirty activities were being carried out inside the hospital OT. Both Parab and Waghela have confessed to using the area for drinking alcohol," said Dr T P Lahane, dean of JJ hospital. He added, "The sister in-charge of the OT, Kasturi Kadam, has been careless while dealing with them and a disciplinary action will be taken against all of them." When MiD DAY contacted Kasturi Kadam, she declined to comment, saying, "I will only respond to the memo issued to me." She added, "I am not at fault anywhere."

Meanwhile, hospital authorities have intimated the state government about this revelation and have asked for the immediate transfer of the guilty. "I have recommended to the government to transfer the ward boy and the sweeper outside the JJ group of hospitals. They have been drinking in an extremely sensitive area where brain and spine surgeries are performed," Lahane said.

Background
On Tuesday the hospital's resident medical officer (RMO) on duty visited the neurosurgery operation theatre on the fifth floor, where his servant, Naresh Pandit had accidentally got locked. It was then that the RMO discovered liquor bottles and half filled glasses with alcohol in the OT area.