Fort's GT hospital postpone 70 surgeries due to severe water shortage

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Around 70 surgeries had to be postponed this month at the Gokuldas Tejpal (GT) Hospital in Fort due to acute water shortage. Apart from the operation theatres, the patients and their relatives have been complaining since the toilets in the hospital wards have had trace amounts of water in the past couple of weeks.

The hospital administration stated that though they have been experiencing shortage of water for several months now, the problem has been aggravated in the past two weeks. "Our requirement of water has increased since the number of patients have also gone up. We have approached the BMC and an extra line will be laid for the hospital in the next couple of days," said Mukund Tayde, medical superintendent of GT hospital.

Another senior official said that due to the water shortage, the hospital administration have been trying to circulate the limited water supply in various parts of the hospital. "We've been trying to alternate between the nurses hostel, the operation theatres and other parts of the hospital. On days, the operation theatres don't have water, the surgeries are postponed for the next day," said the official.

He further stated that the hospital needs an additional 1-1.5 lakh litres of water for smooth functioning of the hospital. "We are getting less than 50 percent of what we need. We had written to the Hydraulic Engineering Department back in June to allow us to install additional pipelines to increase the water supply for the hospital. But we still haven't received the permission," he said adding that currently, the hospital needs around 8-9 water tankers on a daily basis but are receiving only two.

While the patients have to wait longer for their surgeries, the doctors are facing a lot of problems as well. One of the surgeons said that due to the shortage of water, during one of his surgeries, he and the nurses had to scrub their hands with saline solution. "On days there is no water supply in the operation theatre, we have been taking one surgery, preferably a short one. We can't take any more because without water the operation theatre cannot be cleaned. We have to face the patients during our morning rounds and have to postpone many of them due to water shortage," he said.

Hasibun Nissa says that her husband hasn't been able to have bath due to water shortage

Patients who have been admitted in the wards have been unable to take baths. Relatives of patients said that they had to go back home to take a bath and have had to purchase water from outside. Kalwa resident Hasibun Nissa's husband Mukhtar Ahmed Shaikh has been admitted in the hospital for the past two months for leg injury and while water was never available in abundance, circumstances weren't this bad. "Water is sometimes available in the ladies bathroom but never in the gents bathroom. I have been going home to have a bath. My husband, however, hasn't been able to bathe and I have just been wiping him with a wet cloth. We store water in mugs when he has to go to the toilet," she said.

Pandurang Sakpal, Shiv Sena's divisional head (South Mumbai) said that in the past week, relatives of patients and nurses have approached him with their grievances. "I have spoken to the ward officials and the HE department. They said that they will resolve the issue in the next two days by installing an additional pipeline. But if that doesn't happen then we will take out a protest," said Sakpal.

While the HE department officials refused to admit that there is any shortage of water in the cit, Kiran Dighavka, assistant municipal commissioner of A ward said, "We have received complaints of acute water shortage. Since it's government hospital we will provide as many tankers as possible."

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