Civic hospitals in the city are on their toes following the death of 72 children at the BRD Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh due to a failure in oxygen supply to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and encephalitis ward.
Public hospitals have upped precautionary measures to ensure no mistakes while dealing with medical equipment and the oxygen support system. Deans and medical superintendents of the three main civic hospitals and peripheral hospitals have been asked to check their respective hospitals and send out a general advisory.
Idzes Kundan, Additional Municipal Commissioner, BMC, said a meeting was called to pass on this message. “Deans and directors of public hospitals have been asked to take stock of their hospitals and be vigilant.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The civic body has a three-tier system to cater to citizens’ health. It has over 160 dispensaries at the primary level, 16 peripheral hospitals at the secondary level. Its three tertiary care hospitals cater to a large section of the population. The BMC-run KEM Hospital in Parel alone admits between 85,000 and 90,000 patients annually.
While the State government has denied it, the incident has prompted healthcare providers to run checks. Dr. Avinash Supe, Dean, KEM Hospital, said, “These checks are carried out routinely in our hospitals, but after the Gorakhpur incident, we have asked the engineers to be extra-vigilant.” He said deans meet every week to discuss problems and solutions, and a review report has been submitted to the BMC.