City’s top doctors on Tuesday morning gathered on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya to celebrate the forthcoming reopening of Cumballa Hill Hospital, which has now been taken over by the Sion-based Asian Cancer Institute (ACI). After shutting down in 2017 due to piling debts, the 52-bed hospital is set to reopen next month as ACI Cumballa Hill Hospital.
Cancer surgeon Dr. Ramakant Deshpande, who is also the director of ACI, said Cumballa was known for ease of working and was comparable to the best of facilities in the city. “The old-timers have shown immense interest in joining back,” said Dr. Deshpande, who practised at Cumballa Hill Hospital for two decades.
The hospital was started as a nursing home by obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr. V.N. Shirodkar. This was where late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was born. The hospital was later bought over by cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. K.R. Shetty, who expanded it to a tertiary care set-up with focus on heart ailments. It was thus known as Cumballa Hill Hospital and Heart Institute.
Dr. Vikram Sanghvi (69), surgical oncologist, who was attached to the hospital from 1990 till it downed shutters, said it offered the finest care in the locality. “The small set-up had all the top doctors under one roof. Those who came for treatment had a kind of loyalty to the hospital,” said Dr. Sanghvi who has agreed to consult at the hospital as it reopens.
The revived hospital will offer focussed tertiary care and it will additionally have a structured cancer set-up where a team of doctors from ACI will function.
“Doctors who had worked at Cumballa Hill Hospital were very happy with its functioning. Nearly 40 of them have evinced interest in rejoining. People who are taking treatment in other hospitals are calling their doctors after they got to know about the reopening,” said head and neck surgeon Dr. Deepak Parikh, who was attached to Cumballa hospital from 1985 to 2005. He said the new hospital will focus on key specialities and have top doctors in each stream.
The hospital was embroiled in a legal tussle between Dr. Shetty and his son Vijay over retaining control. After Dr. Shetty died in 2017, the legal proceedings ended. “The decision to get ACI to manage the hospital has been agreed upon by everyone. We are all happy about it,” said Sarita Shetty, daughter of Dr. Shetty, who is also a trustee of Cumballa Hill Hospital.
