The State-run St. George Hospital has upgraded many facilities for better patient care. It inaugurated a CT scan machine, three new ventilators and a gender reassignment and cosmetology outpatient department (OPD) on Wednesday.
Dr. Madhukar Gaikwad, medical superintendent of the hospital said that it has also upgraded its blood bank and got a new roti maker in the kitchen. “The patient load has increased over the years. Therefore, we are attempting to upgrade all our systems,” he said. The hospital requires nearly 600 rotis every day, which are made by eight kitchen staff members. “The new roti maker has the capacity to churn out 800 rotis daily,” he added.
With the three new ventilators donated by Medical Education Minister Girish Mahajan, the total number of ventilators in the hospital have gone up to nine. Five more ventilators will soon be added, Dr. Gaikwad said. The hospital is located behind the CST railway station and thus receives many accident cases, making intensive care facilities like ventilators of utmost importance. On an average, the hospital receives 25 patients every day who require a CT scan. Till now, they were referred to JJ and GT hospitals. The hospital authorities are now trying to get an MRI scan machine as well.
St. George Hospital came in focus after Beed constable Lalita Salve’s genital reconstruction surgery that allowed her to assume a male identity as Lalit. Since then, the hospital has received many queries from people across the country prompting them to start a gender reassignment and cosmetology OPD. “We have received queries from 13 people so far who are in various stages of pre-surgery procedure. Having an OPD will help many others to come to the hospital to get answers to their queries and start procedures for the surgery,” Dr. Gaikwad said.
