VN Desai hospital does flip-flop on shutting; patients worried

Political intervention forced the hospital to reverse its decision on Friday but uncertainty persists, leaving patients like Sayyed very worried

MUMBAI: A message written in chalk on the notice board at the civic-run VN Desai Hospital in Santacruz (east) on Thursday had made Anees Sayyed, 28, panic. Sayyed, whose day-old son was in the hospital’s NICU, had heard about the notice, which said the 276-bed hospital would shut for three months from October 12. The hospital, which has been under renovation for years, also said it would shift patients to another facility.

VN Desai hospital does flip-flop on shutting; patients worried.

Political intervention forced the hospital to reverse its decision on Friday but uncertainty persists, leaving patients like Sayyed very worried. “My son is only a day old and is on a ventilator. Shifting him at this stage could be life-threatening for him,” said the auto-rickshaw driver. A resident of Bharat Nagar at Bandra (east), Sayyed says that VN Desai Hospital is the closest for families like his and shutting it even temporarily would be a blow.

The hospital’s decision to close temporarily was reversed after legislator from Bandra (east) Varun Sardesai (Shiv Sena-UBT) turned up with six corporators at the hospital on Thursday afternoon, demanding that the hospital withdraw its decision.

“They had already issued transfer orders to their staff. And plans to shift services to other hospitals were taken without taking patients or elected representatives into confidence,” said Gitesh Raut, Sena (UBT) corporator from Vakola.

Medical superintendent Dr Mayura Nagle told HT, “Following the delegation, the BMC has decided to stay the shifting of this hospital till further orders from the municipal commissioner. No services or patients will be shifted and all services will continue here for now,” Nagle said.

Elected representatives also question the timing. “Since renovation has been underway for years, why didn’t they think of this earlier? Now, 80% of the construction work is almost complete and they wanted to shut. It’s inexplicable,” said Sarika Arolkar, a resident of Vakola pipeline and an MNS functionary.

Congress corporator from Kalina, Tulip Miranda, has the same concerns. She adds, “How does one know that the proposed three-month closure would not stretch beyond?”

VN Desai Hospital is the only civic medical facility east of the highway between Jogeshwari and Andheri, catering to areas like Golibar, Bharat Nagar and Datta Mandir. Closure would have hit lakhs of residents here.

Sachin Bendure, 32, a resident of Datta Mandir in Vakola, said, “Last night, I brought my brother here after he fainted and couldn’t be revived. Because it is close to my home, I could return to freshen up and be back at my brother’s bedside, within 30 minutes.”

Renovations have rendered parts of the hospital almost inaccessible, particularly on the ground floor. Heaps of bamboos lie in the quadrangle between the four buildings, while bamboo scaffolding and green construction material clad the inner face of the campus.