Maharashtra: Four more deaths at Kalwa hospital, nine-member panel to conduct probe

Four more patients, including a one-month-old infant, have died at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj hospital, taking the total number of deaths to 27.

Four more patients were declared dead at the civic-run Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj hospital on Monday, including a one-month-old infant admitted to the Neonatal ICU. Meanwhile, a nine-member panel headed by the director of health services was formed to probe the 18 deaths on Sunday with an August 25 deadline.

Thane, India - August, 14, 2023: After 18 patients died in a single day yesterday in Thane CSM hospital Kalwa hospital, police presence and rush of patients are seen on Tuesday, the second day , in Thane, in Mumbai, India, on,Monday, August, 14, 2023. ( Praful Gangurde / HT Photo )

The four deaths were those of the baby—which had been admitted to the NICU three days earlier for a swelling on its body—a patient admitted to the general ward and one to the ICU. Another patient who arrived at the hospital was dead before admission, sources said. The hospital administration was tightlipped about Monday’s four deaths, which took the total number of patients declared dead at the hospital to 27.

The deaths, however, have not impacted the flow of patients to the hospital. On Monday, hundreds queued up at the OPD and medicine distribution centres where medicines are sold cheaply to poor patients.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde finally reached the Kalwa hospital on Monday night, 36 hours after 18 deaths were reported. After speaking to patients and taking stock of the situation from top officials, Shinde said that action would be taken if any negligence was found but it was also important that the hospital staff was not demoralised.

Defending the hospital, Shinde said that despite the high death count, patients continued to stream in, and 91 more had been admitted and 22 surgeries performed since the incident. “The hospital manages a daily OPD of around 2200 patients,” he said. “Its workload has increased due to redevelopment of the Thane civil hospital.” Shinde said he had asked the civil hospital to increase its capacity by 100 beds and given orders that ambulances should ferry patients free of cost to the civil hospital whenever required.

The CM said that public representatives had made allegations of mismanagement and tried to portray the hospital in poor light and dismissed them as “unfortunate politics”. “This hospital provides injections as expensive as ₹40,000 and ₹1 lakh free to patients,” he said.

Paralysis or pneumonia?

Meanwhile, MNS Thane unit leader Avinash Jadhav staged a protest at the Thane municipal corporation’s headquarters and demanded that TMC chief Abhijit Bangar tender a public apology to Thane citizens for alleged mismanagement. He also revealed an alleged case of negligence by the Kalwa hospital doctors.

“Yesterday, we met a patient named Shakuntala,” he said. “The doctors told us she had paralysis and was unable to speak. We shifted her to a private hospital in Thane, where the doctors said that she did not have paralysis but third-stage pneumonia. The Kalwa hospital doctors did not even do a basic blood test to determine this.”

Jadhav added that Shakuntala’s condition had improved. “Providing additional beds or more medicines is not enough,” he said. “The hospital needs good doctors.” The hospital administration did not respond to the allegations.

No stretcher at casualty

Diva resident Arohi Gaikwad arrived at the hospital’s casualty department with her husband Anil, who had suffered a head injury three days earlier. With her baby in her arms, she looked for a stretcher to wheel him to the casualty section but there were none available. While her family members went in to look for a stretcher, Gaikwad told HT that they had been waiting for 10 minutes. “My husband is unable to walk,” she said. “Shouldn’t there be someone at the casualty for emergency help?”

Gaikwad said that Anil was at a construction site when a stone fell from a height and hit the back of his head. “Though the wound was not very serious or large, he collapsed,” said Gaikwad. “Since then, he does not open his eyes, does not recognise me or our baby, and has been babbling incoherently. There is no government hospital in Diva, and we had to bring him to Kalwa, since local doctors advised an MRI before further treatment.”

Meanwhile, Thane civil surgeon Dr Kailash Pawar and his team put up banners at the gates of the Kalwa hospital, informing patients that beds were available at the Thane Civil Hospital premises, which had relocated next to the Thane Mental Hospital in May this year. NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad had on Sunday angrily questioned Kalwa hospital dean Dr Rakesh Barot and Medical Superintendent Dr Aniruddha Malgaonkar about why the hospital did not shift patients to other hospitals where beds were available if it was facing an overload of patients.

The Thane Civil Hospital has been functioning, albeit in makeshift structures, after its original British-era buildings were demolished to build a 900-bed superspecialty hospital. “We could not move all 336 beds to the new location at one go,” said Dr Pawar. “So we kept some patients at the original location and moved all of them only when the infrastructure was fully ready.”

The hospital currently has 103 beds and two ICUs with 14 to 15 beds each for male and female patients. On Monday, two patients who did not get ICU beds at Kalwa hospital were accommodated in the civil hospital.

A day after the 18 deaths were reported, the government formally issued a GR, instituting a probe by a nine-member committee headed by Dr Swapnil Lale, director of state health services. The panel has been asked to probe the chronology of the incident and the reasons for the deaths, to fix responsibility on concerned officials, and suggest steps to ensure such incidents do not recur.