DNB consultants help improve services at peripheral hospitals

In November, the Diplomate of National Board (DNB) course was started to strengthen the services of the city’s healthcare infrastructure.

Mumbai: Two months after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) started offering a three-year specialisation course – in six out of their 16 peripheral hospitals – the services there have majorly improved. They are now able to provide services that need specialised training and skills, which were not on offer before. They have also reduced the number of cases referred to the bigger hospitals.

Seventy seats for the course were approved at Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar, Bhabha Hospital in Kurla and Bandra, VN Desai Hospital in Santa Cruz, Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital in Kandivali and Shatabdi Hospital in Govandi. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

In November, the Diplomate of National Board (DNB) course was started to strengthen the services of the city’s healthcare infrastructure. Seventy seats for the course were approved at Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar, Bhabha Hospital in Kurla and Bandra, VN Desai Hospital in Santa Cruz, Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital in Kandivali and Shatabdi Hospital in Govandi.

“Thirty-eight out of the seventy sanctioned seats have been filled with candidates from the last round of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) counselling. The others will also be filled up in the subsequent round of counselling,” said additional municipal commissioner Dr Sanjeev Kumar.

The BMC aims to start the course in other civic hospitals with more than 200 beds, he said, adding, “Over the next couple of years, we intend to have thrice the number of DNB consultants in the civic hospitals.”

Many patients from underprivileged backgrounds, who were unable to afford or access the treatment they earlier could are now able to access them. A 55-year-old daily wage labourer from Govandi had been in immense pain for the last eight years. He suffered from arthritis, which gradually weakened his bones, even causing him to walk with a limp. As he could not afford surgery, he depended on pain medication with increasing dosage over the years. Not only was he unable to work for several days, but he was also in immense pain constantly.

In November, he was told that the civic-run Shatabdi Hospital in Govandi had started offering the surgery he required. Soon, the man went through a bilateral (of both sides) total hip replacement on the very day of walking into the hospital. He could walk out with the help of a walker within six days. Today, he can work and enjoys a much better quality of life with no pain six weeks after the surgery was conducted. All expenses were covered by the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana

Several surgeries requiring highly trained and skilled doctors including hip replacements, total knee repair and cochlear implants needed by children with hearing difficulties, which would cost upwards of a few lakh rupees in private hospitals are now being conducted at civic hospitals. Another improvement has been in the emergency response for cases like kids ingesting coins and minor burns.

Senior officials at the peripheral hospitals are confident of further improvements in their services with the help of the DNB candidates. “It is a three-year course, with the possibility of the candidates being absorbed within the hospital on passing out. This will result in a more sustainable human resource development within the hospitals,” said a senior BMC health official.