KEM radiology dept seeks additional resources to address patient complaints

The move comes after the administration received complaints of an ongoing long delay in ultrasound procedures forcing patients to go outside the hospital for tests because of the prolonged waiting period

Mumbai: In order to urgently address the complaints of month-long waiting periods, delays in ultrasound and better patient care, the radiology department of King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital in Parel has demanded more ultrasound machines and postgraduate students from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to meet their demands.

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The move comes after the administration received complaints of an ongoing long delay in ultrasound procedures forcing patients to go outside the hospital for tests because of the prolonged waiting period. “OPD patients at KEM Hospital are forced to get sonography done outside. Despite having two machines, the waiting list was three months long, but now, due to one machine being shifted to an emergency, the waiting period is expected to be even longer,” hospital staff said.

Sonography is an important diagnostic tool used to examine conditions related to organs such as the bladder, ovaries, spleen, kidneys, liver, thyroid, uterus, testicles, eyes, and blood vessels. Hundreds of patients in OPD are prescribed this scan daily. While long waiting periods are common for CT or MRI scans, these days, even for sonography, people have to wait for a long time. According to sources, the hospital has six sonography machines. Two machines are used for OPD patients, one for emergency services, one for IPD, one for Doppler patients, and one for other special scans including biopsies.

Recently, additional municipal commissioner Dr Sudhakar Shinde visited the hospital. At that time, he saw a long queue for emergency sonography. Seeing the distress of patients and their families, he asked the hospital administration what is needed to address the long queue. Amidst this, to avoid long waits for emergency patients, one machine from OPD was shifted to emergency.

An employee associated with the department said, “Despite having two machines, there is a 3-month waiting period in OPD, and now, by shifting one machine to an emergency, the waiting for OPD patients will be even longer. Seeing such a long waiting list, many times patients get upset and go to private centres for testing.”

A resident doctor said that the department has two professors, two additional professors, two associate professors, and one assistant professor. “When the DM course starts, only four out of seven faculty members will be available. Those 13 PG students will also be reduced to nine. Along with such machines, there is also a shortage of human resources,” said the resident doctor.

On average, 2,000 new people come for treatment in OPD every day. On average, 185 people are admitted daily. At KEM, sonography of 250 to 300 patients is done daily, while Doppler and sonography of others, including biopsies, are done separately. “The number of patients has increased significantly compared to before, but the proportion of equipment, PG seats, and staff is not the same. This is the reason that the number of patients is higher, and the current resources are falling short. The solution to this problem is that the number of equipment, seats in radiology, and staff will have to be increased,” said a doctor. When contacted, Dr Shinde said BMC is looking into the matter and ways to resolve it.