No better than KEM Hospital, mid-day finds many of the same problems plaguing Sion hospital as well - expired fire extinguishers, choked emergency exits and a long waiting list for CT scan - apart from those of dangling wires and rude doctors
Sion hospital has several problems that need to be fixed urgently, namely electric cables at the ICU that have come loose from the ceiling and can be seen dangling to the floor. Pic/Datta Kumbhar
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As many as 200 emergency cases every single day - that's the load the Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, more popularly known as Sion hospital, receives. And yet infrastructure, more like the lack of it, paints a dark picture. Some sections of the hospital are undergoing construction, but the issue is of patients' rights and their right to basic facilities, on which counts the medical institution falls miserably short.
Patient-doc divide
It's been observed several times that the hospital is so overburdened that they don't even have beds for emergency patients at times. The situation is worse for those needing ICU.
Talking about the dire straits, Shaitu Ali, who lost his toddler due to delay in treatment after several hospitals refused to admit him, told mid-day, "I will never forget the night I rushed my son to Sion hospital; he was fighting for his life but they refused admission due to unavailability of NICU (Neonatal ICU). I must have pleaded with them for nearly three hours, after which they took him in."
Patients have often complained that hospital staffers are rude and don't behave or answer properly. To address this, authorities have started training workshops for the employees, to strengthen the doctor-patient relationship.
'Not dependable'
Like KEM Hospital, Sion hospital faces the problem of a long waiting list for CT scan, with patients having to wait for nearly two months for their turn, forcing them then to approach private labs and pay exorbitant charges from their own pockets. An example of this is Vishwajit Pal, who was given a date two months later for his mother's CT scan. Knowing he couldn't wait that long, he got the test done at a private diagnostic centre.
Also like KEM, most of the fire extinguishers on the premises here have expired, with emergency and ICU wards being the worst-hit, despite the fact that both see high footfalls daily. While there are signs indicating fire exits with the paths provided, most aren't photo luminescent, as per requirement. In fact, many signs are torn.
Also, the exit passage is hazardously narrow, especially of the ICU - just three feet, thoroughly insufficient to take patients out on stretchers along with relatives. "We are brought here in emergencies, but by the look of it, it's not dependable at all. This defines the state of medical infrastructure in this city," scoffed Amish Patel, who had come to the OPD for treatment.
Under the hanging cables
A walk through the hospital reveals that many things need to be fixed urgently - electric cables at the ICU have come loose from the ceiling and can be seen dangling to the floor, raising the risk of electrocution as well as fires. And who's the vulnerable lot to this hazard? Patients in a serious condition, attached to medical equipment and too sick to move. Several relatives of patients who have come from far-off areas are forced to stay under the hanging cables.
"My 21-year-old daughter is admitted in the ICU. We stay in Vasai, but she was referred here. I need to be close to her, but I have no place to sleep; so I sleep under these cables. I can't question the hospital as my daughter is under their care," rued 43-year-old Urvashi Koli.
Next, there is no compartmentalisation in the wards to prevent the spread of smoke and fire from one section to another. More importantly, the main box of electric control of the emergency building is located exactly opposite the casualty room that lies unlocked. At any time of the day, there are a lot of people in the casualty room, putting hundreds at risk from electric shock. Worse still, relatives of patients can often be seen urinating or spitting in front of the electric boxes.
Medical mayhem
Shreya Milind Nimonkar, health rights activist
'Doctors at emergency don't behave properly with patients or their relatives. Patients are kept waiting on bed for hours, and when finally someone does come to check on them, it's an intern, not a doctor'
Kiran Pawar, Kurla resident
'My uncle was admitted at Sion hospital and he needed blood. When we went to the hospital's blood bank, they asked for replacement blood, which is illegal. Then, I came to know that this had become a regular practice'
800
Number of OPD patients visiting the hospital daily
20 Lakh
Number of OPD patients the hospital caters to annually
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