Mumbai safety audit: JJ hospital is a tangle of mess, safety violations

JJ Hospital sees lakhs of patients both indoor and outdoor from all parts of Maharashtra as well as the country PicBipin KokateDid you know JJ Hospital is considered among Indias best With total bed strength of 3000odd it caters to an annual load of 12 lakh outpatients and 80000 indoor patients But beyond the doors and these numbers inside story on its functioning and safety measures is something entirely different And even as the hospital struggles to manage the load that is increasing daily infrastructure is yet to catch up to make life easier for the staff as well as patientsShame old storymiddays safety audit has revealed that this medical institution which sees a large number of emergency cases with people trooping in for treatment from across the state is woefully illequipped to tackle a fire most extinguishers on the premises including in gynaecology paediatric medicine and microbiology among other important wards expired last year and havent been refilledMaharashtra fire safety rules state that cylinders if not updated regularly can lead to a hospital losing its licence At JJ however stickers of expiry dates on several cylinders have been torn off making it impossible to ascertain their validity The other safety violations are the same as those of its counterparts alarm boxes for emergency in several wards and on many floors broken and none of the exit signs made of photoluminescent materialOf cats and spitsNow lets talk about hygiene For all the song and dance the government has been doing to promote the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan the state its own hospital is in is deplorable to say the least The emergency ward has just one common bathroom 4x5 feet in size thats always filthy The only public toilet on the premises remains closed due to monetary conflict with the ownerThen there are the cats yes here too that roam around and are often found on patients beds and their faeces and urine found littered inside wards which can cause and spread infections among those with low immunity Walls all over are spitstained as is the TB OPD the last place people should be spitting in the section on the second floor of the OPD building patients and their relatives have made it a habit to spit on a dustbin placed on the ground floor near the staircaseThe hospital is also struggling because of the doctorpatient ratio While patients often complain that they remain unattended for hours a thirdyear MBBS student said We receive patients not only from Mumbai but from across the country So the pressure is too much We have to see five patients in 10 minutes Sometimes we feel like robots I think this gap in demand and supply is one of the major problems Despite repeated calls dean Dr S D Nanandkar remained unreachable for commentUnmet expectationsDr Ravikant Singh medical officer who works for patients in rural areasJJ is the biggest hospital with highest number of footfall so peoples expectations are also high which the hospital fails to meet On several occasions we have seen that doctors are absent If you ask the staff about it they are clueless To regulate this the government introduced the biometric system but no one follows it Also essential medicines are often out of stock which forces patients to buy them from chemists outside for a higher priceNikita Nirmal PR professionalThe hospital doesnt consider hygiene as a right of patients maybe thats why it neglects cleaning toilets on a regular basis I know the doctors are under too much pressure but they need to attend to patients faster2000Number of OPD patients the hospital sees every single day140Number of patients coming to the emergency ward on a daily basisCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news current affairs from Mumbai local news crime news and breaking headlines hereDownload the new midday Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go