All on board for Maha challenge

With the highest number of corona-positive patients, Maharashtra is facing the enormity of the task with large-scale restrictions and directions — such as by BMC of shifting all stable patients to peripheral hospitals to ensure priority to Covid-19 patients, suspects and their contacts. Leading from the front are medical professionals, like at Mumbai’s Kasturba Hospital

Weighing up the situation: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar interacts with immigration, health, security officials at IGI airport. PTI

Shiv Kumar in Mumbai

Were it not for the Covid-19 pandemic, Mumbai’s swish set would have barely heard of the Kasturba Gandhi Hospital for Infectious Diseases, located in the working class suburb of Chinchpokli in Central Mumbai.

Typical of hospitals managed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Kasturba Hospital was a rundown building till it got a fresh coat of paint a few months ago. Unlike the five-star corporate hospitals which dot Mumbai, infrastructure at Kasturba is poor. The hospital lacks an Intensive Care Unit, essential for treatment of critically-ill patients. Essential equipment like ventilators, which were originally purchased for Kasturba, were diverted to other hospitals run by the Mumbai municipality.

Even the house-keeping at Kasturba is poor with patients initially quarantined here posting pictures of clogged toilets, soiled wash basins and stains of spit on corridors on social media. The only good thing Kasturba had going for it was its experienced team of doctors and nurses who enjoy a good reputation among medical professionals for tackling infectious diseases in Mumbai.

“Usually we do not receive so many patients. Those visiting here were often referred to by other hospitals. This is a very quiet place. But now, there are many people waiting in queue to get tested,” says Dr Chandrakant Pawar, Medical Superintendent, Kasturba Hospital.

The workload following the sudden influx of people waiting to be tested and those quarantined at the hospital has turned the lives of Dr Pawar and his colleagues topsy-turvy. Kasturba now has 30 doctors, 45 nurses and more than 45 support staff camping at the hospital round the clock.

According to Dr Pawar, many of them do not go home and have been staying put within the hospital premises. The official also pointed out that the facilities at Kasturba’s laboratory, where throat and nasal swabs are collected from suspected Covid-19 patients, are being revamped. “We have posted more people from other laboratories at Kasturba. Tests are now being conducted in two shifts,” he says. He adds that the laboratory may become operational 24x7 if required.

Officials point out that as many as 800 patients visit the Out Patient Department of Kasturba every day. However, not everyone is tested. According to Health Department officials of the BMC, who are also stationed at Kasturba, only those with a history of foreign travel or those who have come in contact with such a person are tested. The rest are simply asked to go home.

“There are frayed tempers and people often shout at us. But there is little we can do about it. There is also fear among the people and among hospital staff about contracting infection. But it is part of our job,” says a civic official who has been deployed at Kasturba Hospital. “We have added beds and brought in additional equipment after people began to be admitted for qurantine,” says Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani. He refused to comment on reports that Kasturba had only four functional ventilators with 11 machines having been diverted elsewhere.

The media coverage of early patients admitted to Kasturba’s isolation ward running away due to its poor infrastructure, however, forced the administration to spruce up the facility. “We have hired a private housekeeping agency to keep Kasturba hospital clean. We have also brought in doctors, nurses and consultants from other civic hospitals,” Mumbai’s Municipal Commissioner Pravin Pardeshi told reporters here.

Protection for staff

Leaders of the civic employees’ union pointed out that Kasturba Gandhi Hospital initially did not give out the N-95 masks to its doctors and nursing staff. “It was only in March when people were being quarantined in large numbers that these masks and the hazmat suits were provided,” says a union official.

So far, however, the medical personnel at Kasturba and Seven Hills, the other civic hospital in Mumbai where an isolation ward has been set up, have been lucky.

“No medical personnel from the BMC have tested positive for Covid-19,” says Dr Daksha Shah, Deputy Director, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. She, however, points out that personnel, including doctors and nurses, are under a lot of stress about getting infected.

Apart from medical personnel, security staff who have been hired from private agencies and police constables who have been posted at these two hospitals are also worried about contracting Covid-19 from patients coming here for testing.

“We are reading about a lot of things in the newspapers. But I have only this cloth mask. I do not know if it works,” says a security guard at the Seven Hills hospital in suburban Mumbai.