26 September,2016 08:15 AM IST | | Rupsa Chakraborty
Data collected of numbers between 2011 and 2015 shows that despite crores of rupees spent on security, the ill continue to abscond from major civic hospitals in Mumbai
Suresh Gaikwad, a 36-year-old suffering from a psychiatric illnesss, was rescued by the police from outside Parel station and taken to Sion hospital for treatment. He was admitted in the psychiatry department and diagnosed with schizophrenia. However, soon, he went missing again and, despite searches by hospital authorities and the Bhoiwada police, is yet to be traced. It's been a month since he went missing.
Missing numbers
If you thought this was a stray case, the figures will defy that and how! As per data collected by mid-day, between 2011 and 2015, more than 50,000 patients have gone missing from the four major civic hospitals - Sion, KEM, Nair and Cooper. And this despite crores of rupees being invested in providing security personnel in all these hospitals.
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In the last five years, more than 20,000 patients have fled from Sion hospital, followed by Nair (18,320) and KEM (6,546).
As per the data, the highest number of patients going absconding is from the male ward and psychiatry department. Mentally ill patients who are admitted are considered as the responsibility of the respective hospital's authorities, and yet, every year on an average, 500 such patients are reported missing from the ward and department.
"It is the responsibility of the hospital authorities to take care of the mentally ill. Because, when they flee from a hospital, their treatment stops, which can worsen their condition," said Dr Rajendra Shirsath, Thane Mental Hospital's superintendent.
Some activists blamed the high treatment costs as one of the reasons behind patients absconding from hospitals. On September 5, Tilak Nagar resident Sabita Jain met with an accident while praying to a Ganpati idol near her house - a BMC water tank hit her from behind and ran over her leg, crushing it. She was taken to KEM hospital, where she underwent treatment for 10 days, which cost her more than Rs 20,000.
"So far, I have spent more than Rs 20,000 on her treatment. Where do poor like us go if we have to spend so much money in hospitals? For every test, they ask me to visit a private diagnostic centre that keeps adding to the total bill," said her son Pritam.
Graph over years
As per the data collected, the number of patients going missing from the four major civic hospitals has been steadily rising. In 2014, 4,620 patients were found missing from Nair hospital that jumped to 5,040 the next year. Similarly, in Sion hospital, 4,352 patients disappeared in 2014, and 5,265 in 2015.
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Dr Avinash Supe, director of major hospitals, was out of station and, hence, couldn't talk to mid-day. Additional civic commissioner (health) Idzes Kundan didn't respond to mid-day's calls.
Only 10 per cent traced
When a patient from any BMC-run hospital goes missing, the hospital authority informs the nearby police station, where a missing person complaint is registered and an investigation started to find the patient.
But only 10 per cent of them are actually traced. In Sion hospital, 20,430 patients went missing in the last five years, but only 5,214 were found. In KEM hospital, nearly 6,500 patients fled between 2011 and 2015, but the hospital and police managed to find only 450 of them.
