Dental, ENT wards of KEM Hospital in Mumbai to be revamped

Both the departments have an OPD count of about 500 patients daily and see several fresh cases daily.

The coming months may be frustrating for about 500 dental and ENT patients at KEM Hospital as wards of both departments, which are one of the largest facilities in the state, will go under renovation. Doctors said patients will receive treatment in the outpatient wards and major surgeries will be transferred to Sion and Nair hospitals.

The special OPD containers setup outside KEM Hospital in Parel. (HT)

A special container OPD has been installed near the old building of the hospital as the civic body plans to renovate the dental and ENT departments. “The building is very old and hasn’t been renovated for very long. It’s necessary to undertake repair works to make sure patients don’t face any inconvenience and receive better care at furnished departments,” said a senior civic official.

Both the departments have an OPD count of about 500 patients daily and see several fresh cases daily.

However, since the container OPD doesn’t have any special equipment or space to perform special procedures, the patients will only receive a primary clinical analysis and then be shifted to other hospitals. Patients in serious condition have been shifted to different wards already.

However, doctors said they were trying to make arrangements to perform at least minor procedures inside the container OPDs.

“It’s a very usual process where when a particular department goes in renovation, we make arrangements to send patients to different tertiary care hospitals. Both Sion and Nair hospitals are in nearby and patients will face no inconvenience,” said Dr Avinash Supe, dean of KEM Hospital.