Mumbai’s SevenHills, Nair hospitals to get more staff members for fight against Covid

The expansion plan of the civic-run SevenHills and BYL Nair hospitals, which was delayed owing to a staff crunch, has now gathered momentum after the Brihanmumbai

The expansion plan of the civic-run SevenHills and BYL Nair hospitals, which was delayed owing to a staff crunch, has now gathered momentum after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) hired additional medical staff.

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By the end of the week, the civic body will add 500 more beds at both of these facilities, taking the combined capacity in both the isolation wards of the two hospitals to 1,900.

To help the two facilities in arranging private doctors for the centres, both Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) and Indian Medical Association (IMA) have come forward.

“We recruited 500 nurses for Covid-19 isolation wards, of which 175 will be recruited at SevenHills Hospital. Also, we have recruited doctors from medical colleges and private practitioners to run these two facilities,” said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner (health), BMC. The civic body also plans to recruit doctors from green zones of the state to deploy them at these two facilities.

To cater to the growing number of cases, the BMC had in the second week of April converted Nair Hospital into a dedicated hospital for Covid-19 patients. The civic body plans to start 800 isolation beds at the hospital, 50 of which will be in the intensive care unit (ICU) for Covid patients. However, until now, only 550 patients were being admitted at the Covid facility. After the expansion, the facility will have a maximum capacity of 900 beds.

Similarly, in the last week of March, BMC decided to convert SevenHills Hospital into the biggest isolation facility in India with 1,500 beds. However, currently it has only admitted 825 patients at the hospital. After the expansion, the facility will get an additional 175 beds.