Hospital undergoes renovation, many serious patients shifted
The ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) and Dental department of the King Edward Memorial (KEM) hospital, Parel, will now be working outside the old building of the hospital.
This has been made mandtory after ongoing renovation work at the hospital, sources said. A special Out Patient Department (OPD) is beding set up outside the old building of the hospital, they said.
Doctors said patients will receive treatment in the outpatient wards and major surgeries will be transferred to Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General hospital, Sion and B.Y.L. Nair hospital.
A senior civic official said that the building is very old and it has not been renovated since a long time.
“It is necessary to undertake repair works to make sure patients do not face any inconvenience and receive better care in well-furnished departments,” the official said.
Nilesh Kharat, who had come for an ear check-up, said, “We are not facing any problem due to the renovation as all possible requirements have been taken care of. The doctors here are given us the primary treatment and treatments at the OPD. If something serious the doctors are asking us to go to the tertiary hospital where we are provided treatment.”
The special OPD does not have a space to perform operation but only for primary clinical analysis. Both the departments have an OPD count of about 500 patients daily apart from several fresh cases daily.
“Only primary treatment will be given to patients and they will be shifted to other hospitals. Patients in serious condition have been shifted to different wards already,” a senior doctor said.
He added that they are trying to make arrangements to perform at least minor procedures inside the container OPD. “In the next week one more special containers will be installed for follow-up checks on patients. We are not sure how much time the repair work will take.”
Dr. Avinash Supe, Dean of KEM Hospital, said, “It is 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.”