Not long ago, surgeries and other medical procedures used to get postponed or rescheduled abruptly due to lack of clean and ironed linen at Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS). For some time now, patients, attenders and hospital staff have become accustomed to wince at the sight of the grimy and wrinkled linen.
As ordinary as it may seem, basic hospital services like clean linen, providing shelters for attenders who can’t afford private accommodation, toilets, clean drinking water, greenery and walkways for attenders and general visitors at NIMS were unheard of. The process to float tenders for such projects would easily take six months to one year to fructify.
“We decided not to spend money from hospital funds to cut down delays. We began contacting government agencies and banks for developmental works at NIMS as part of their CSR activities. So far, the response is encouraging and has given us a lot of confidence,” says NIMS Director L. Narendranath.
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Standing proudly in front of the brand new laundry, ironing machines and steam boilers, he says there is now one less reason for surgeons to postpone procedures.
“These may seem insignificant, but they are important for the hospital’s smooth functioning. If surgeries are on time, more patients get treatment and get discharged early. This means, more space for new patients,” he explains.
Everyday, NIMS requires roughly 2,200 clean and ironed bedsheets while old laundry machines had a capacity of just 800 per day. “Now, we can produce 2,800 clean and ironed hospital linen everyday. NATCO Trust has come forward to spend close to Rs. 30 lakh for this,” Dr. Narendranath says.
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In a month, the hospital will also start providing shelters to attenders of patients coming from far flung regions. NATCO Trust is once again funding this project.
The hospital has taken the help of GHMC to construct separate walkways for patients, attenders and general visitors while SBI is funding the greenery project.