BYL Nair Hospital faces medical staff shortage

The biggest Covid-19 facility in the city, BYL Nair Hospital, is facing a severe shortage of staff as its resident doctors are being transferred on coronavirus duty

The biggest Covid-19 facility in the city, BYL Nair Hospital, is facing a severe shortage of staff as its resident doctors are being transferred on coronavirus duty to other hospitals and facilities.

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Presently, the hospital has a bed capacity of 362, including 38 in the intensive care unit (ICU). With all beds occupied, resident doctors are working round the clock. Despite this, 140 resident doctors have been called on Covid-19 duty at the Seven Hills Hospital, 30 to Kasturba Gandhi Hospital and another 90 have been stationed under the public health department.

“All Covid and non-covid hospitals are referring their patients to us for treatment. But rather than providing us with additional hands, our doctors are being taken away,” said a student from the hospital.

Dr Mohan Joshi, current in-charge of the hospital said, “We have enough staff to cater to 1,000 patients. There is no additional pressure. They are working in different shifts. Also, the order to station doctors at other hospitals comes from the BMC.”

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to extend the bed capacity at the hospital to 800. But arranging for the required number of staff will turn into the biggest hurdle.

As the elderly are more susceptible to the infection, many senior doctors can’t get directly involved in the treatment of patients. This has put additional pressure on residents and already many of them have contracted the infection on duty.

“Already, 40 medical staffers from the hospital have contracted the infection through cross-transmission. Many are also already quarantined so can’t even ask them to work,” said another doctor.

The hospital also doesn’t have an adequate number of dialysis machines. As per sources, the hospital has only five dialysis machines which can only attend to 24 patients maximum daily. Whereas, the hospital has already registered 39 dialysis patients.