Mumbai: Rajawadi hospital witnesses more deaths after outsourcing ICU

Ghatkopars Rajawadi Hospital has allegedly witnessed more than 30 deaths since August 6 the day its intensive care unit ICU was outsourced while its computerised tomography CT scan machine has been nonoperational for two monthsThe government had recently decided to outsource intensive care in peripheral hospitals a move that was criticised Outsourcing ICUs in peripheral hospitals is waste of public money say doctors mdash midday May 30Rajawadi Hospital was outsourced to Criti Care run by Dr Rajesh Tekchandani and Dr Seema Malik a former chief medical superintendent of peripheral hospitals Under the arrangement Criti Care had to get MBBS doctors to run the ICU and rope in consultants and superspecialty experts Sources from the hospital requesting anonymity have alleged that instead of MBBS doctors Criti Care has hired homeopathy and ayurvedic graduates with no experience in handling critical casesSome of these have not even submitted their degree certificate and other documents for verification while others are not experienced alleged the source Prakash Wani a local Shiv Sena worker said the hospital ICU earlier manned by qualified and experienced civic doctors does not even have doctors Alleging that fatalities in the ICU have risen since August 6 Wani demanded a highlevel inquiryTrauma unit nonfunctionalThe hospitals trauma centre set up with funds from the Rotary Club has been nonoperational for 13 years due to unavailability of super specialists like neurosurgeon neurologist cardio surgeons etc This trauma centre has now been renamed as surgical intensive care unit despite having no intensive care facilityRajawadi is the largest peripheral hospital in the central suburbs said a senior doctor It gets patients from Mulund to Kurla and Vashi to Tilaknagar including train and road accidents and other medicolegal cases Without facilities and qualified doctors accident victims are at high riskCriti Care claimsDr Rajesh Tekchandani said the allegations stemmed from envy We have qualified MBBS and MD doctors who are hired on shift basis to handle the ICU he saidConsultants also visit the hospital daily The mortality rate in the hospital was higher even before we took charge as they did not have doctors and the ICU was handled by a single assistant medical officerrank doctorAbout the trauma centre being changed to a surgical ICU and the CT scan machine he said CT scan issue is to be tackled by the medical superintendent Regarding nonavailability of neurosurgeon and neurologist Dr Tekchandani was noncommittal and said he did not have details of cases as of nowWill prove if trueDr Shashikant R Wadekar Chief Medical Superintendent peripheral hospitals said All the outsourced agencies have to comply with the agreement norms I am unaware of such a high number of deaths in the ICU We will analyse the nature of ailment and line of treatment provided before coming to any conclusion I will wait for Dr Vidya Thakur medical superintendent Rajawadi Hospital to resume duty onSeptember 19Dr Thakur and her family met with a road accident a fortnight ago her motherinlaw died and take her inputs before making any further statementWhat donor saysProf Yogesh Zaveri expresident Rotary Club Ghatkopar who monitored the work at the trauma centre said In 2005 officials said the civic health department will obtain machinery and equipment for the trauma unit and asked us to foot the billWe spent overRs 30 lakh Later whenever we asked them about the unit they cited unavailability of doctors or political problems for the delay After much persuasion we roped in Sheriff Dr Jagannathrao Hegde to formally inaugurate the ward But the unit was never opened to the public Even three years ago we provided the hospital with a blood separation machine But till about a year ago the machine was not even unpacked We will never again undertake a project with the civic bodyAlso ReadMumbai After three hospitals and 15hour ordeal toddler battles for lifeCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates