TMC to add more beds at Kalwa hospital, revamp to begin soon
The Thane Municipal Corporation plans to expand the capacity of its Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj hospital and create additional beds as part of a revamp.
The Thane Municipal Corporation is set to expand the 500-bed capacity of its Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj hospital at Kalwa and create additional beds on the second floor as part of the hospital revamp that is slated to begin shortly.
Thane municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar chaired a review meeting at the hospital on Tuesday, a day after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde visited in the wake of the tragic deaths of 18 patients on the night of August 12-13.
Bangar told the meeting that patient care and health services would remain the top priority for the hospital, and it should ensure that no patient was refused admission. The meeting was attended by hospital dean Dr Rakesh Barot, medical superintendent Dr Aniruddha Malgaonkar, additional municipal commissioner Sandeep Malwi, deputy commissioners G G Godepure and Umesh Birari and all department heads.
Bangar also announced an administrative change, namely the filling of the hitherto vacant post of office superintendent. The superintendent, he said, would submit proposals to the TMC and also take all administrative decisions, leaving the medical superintendent and doctors free to focus on patients. “This will allow the dean and the medical superintendent to concentrate on improving health services,” he said.
The municipal commissioner also said that recruitment was an ongoing process, and vacant positions should be reviewed from time to time and filled. He directed all department heads in the hospital to personally do the rounds of each ward, and instructed the dean to make rounds of at least two departments daily to supervise the operations.
Bangar also instructed hospital employees to inform patients that the Thane Civil Hospital had been relocated to Sevalal Nagar; he added that in the event of beds not being available at the Kalwa hospital, ambulances needed to be arranged to transport patients to the Civil Hospital or hospitals in Mumbai. He also told officials to ensure that all necessary tests on patients were done within the hospital, and they were not sent elsewhere for these.
The commissioner had earlier said that funds to the tune of ₹60 crore for the renovation of the Kalwa hospital had already arrived, and after the tender process, the revamp of the hospital would begin.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde visited the hospital for the first time after 27 deaths were reported in four days at the hospital. He said a nine-member committee would probe the deaths—eighteen patients lost their lives in a short span of 10 hours—and fix responsibility if any negligence was found.