Exclusive: Plight of JJ hospital amid COVID pandemic: No gloves, needles, saline or key drugs

In the middle of a pandemic when hospitals are supposed to take utmost precautions and be a safe haven the state governmentrun JJ Hospital has been facing a shortage of the most basic necessities such as gloves needles threads for sutures saline and drugs for malaria and asthma medication Doctors claim that the situation prevailing for over three weeks has forced them to carry out blood collection and intubation in the Emergency ward without wearing glovesThe NotinStock NS drugs and materials are resulting in patientsrsquo families having to buy them from outside Malfunctioning laryngoscopes too have been a constant issueA doctor puts a cast without glovesA senior doctor at JJ Hospital said ldquoThere can always be a shortage of one or two things that we can handle but the shortage of even the most basic medical equipment over a long period of time has been affecting us Some wards donrsquot have needles gloves and drugs for malaria seizures asthma and nebulisation We are asking patientsrsquo families to get the equipment The government is supposed to have everything in stock and it is supposed to be given free to patients Families incur an expenditure of Rs 300400rdquolsquoEmergency ward hit hardrsquoAccording to the doctor the shortage affects the hospitalrsquos Emergency ward ward no 4 the most where time is of the essence ldquoIt is much worse in Emergency because we run out of supplies very fast This can be dealt with in other normal wards but not in the Emergency ward If someone needs to be put on the ventilator and there is no tracheal tube the patient will definitely die while the doctor writes a prescription and asks the family to get the suppliesrdquoA medical worker collects bloodlsquoIntubated without glovesrsquomidday has the list of lsquoNS Drugs and Materials in Wd4rsquo The list includes sterile gloves examination gloves plastic gloves EDTA bulbs five different types of needles and surgical blades Drugs such as Avil Falcigo and Buscopan are out of stockA doctor at the Emergency ward who had to intubate a patient with his bare hands said ldquoPatients coming in shock low blood pressure who need urgent fluid resuscitation are forced to get saline from outside There are no gloves Resident doctors have to work with bare hands if patients are not able to bring gloves This exposes the doctors to infection compromises the safety of patients and crosscontamination increases There have been instances when surgery and orthopaedic residents dressed wounds or applied casts without wearing glovesrdquoThe rack in the Emergency ward at JJ Hospital where supplies are keptldquoThere is also the issue of malfunctioning laryngoscopesrdquo said the doctor ldquoIntubation is an urgent lifesaving procedure that requires a laryngoscope to see the airway Even a minutersquos delay can be the difference between life and death The lights in our laryngoscopy blades have not been working efficientlyrdquoAccording to the doctor this acute shortage did not happen overnight ldquoDoctors have had to clean wounds and prep patients for surgery without gloves I have intubated patients with my bare hands There are times when adrenalin a drug needed for patients with extremely weak pulse is absent The shortage was an onandoff thing earlier but now it has been extending for weeksrdquoA malfunctioning laryngoscopy bladeThe doctor added that senior resident doctors wrote to the admin but there has been no response so far ldquoThe admin wingrsquos job is to arrange the necessary equipment I donrsquot see any specific reason as to why these are not available especially during the COVID19 pandemic at the biggest governmentrun college in Maharashtrardquo the doctor saidDr Ranjit Mankeshwar dean of JJ Hospital said ldquoWe have a budget for consumables At the moment we have handed over 90 per cent of our budget to an institute which is supposed to do centralised purchase for the medical education department and health The institute has not supplied us with the necessary material and the remaining 10 per cent of our budget has already been spent This is why there is a shortagerdquoDr Mankeshwar added ldquoWe have asked the government for permission to use other grantsrdquoDr Mankeshwar added that the shortage has been prevailing for around 10 days and not for three weeks When asked about the situation at the Emergency ward he said ldquoIt does create a problem and we are trying to combat it by raising funds Hopefully we should ride out this crunch in 15 daysrdquo9037Proportion of the budget JJ Hospital gave institute for buying suppliesRs 400Approx amount spent by patientsrsquo families on supplies from outside