Mumbai: Shatabdi Hospital to go into self-cleaning mode with in-house laundry

The room in the basement where the central sterile supply department is set to be established

The 444-bed Shatabdi Hospital in Kandivli is set to establish its own central sterile supply department (CSSD) within its premises. This will allow the hospital to wash its laundry on-site instead of sending it to BMC's central washing unit in Wadala once or twice a week.

With around 500 patients visiting its OPD and casualty department daily, the hospital has been struggling to manage its laundry amid heavy patient flow. "We not only have to treat regular casualties, but being a government hospital, we also have to attend to and treat medico-legal cases. Due to this daily heavy flow of patients, it becomes difficult for us to constantly keep changing the bedsheets," said Dr Nilesh Jadhav, a medical officer at the hospital.

Laundry machinery awaiting installation at the hospital

The lack of clean linens increases the risk of infectious disease spread. "Wards such as casualty, gynaecology, ICU, and postoperative observation rooms require the most linen changes due to blood loss. Though we use plastic and silicone sheets in postoperative rooms, shortages force us to use bedsheets, which can be unavailable if laundry isn't delivered on time," a senior nurse explained.

Self-cleaning system

As per the head of BMC's main washing centre, Chandrakant Ahire, approximately six lakh linens are delivered per week from the 16 peripheral BMC-run hospitals for washing. Currently, Shatabdi Hospital sends its laundry once or sometimes twice a week, which sometimes leads to delays in the services. "While the central laundry employees do collect and deliver the linens quite on time, it just becomes a hassle to wait for them as days are not specified. Sometimes they collect our linens on a Monday, while sometimes they show up on a Thursday, which disrupts the weekly management of the linens.

Though we do keep some extra linens, it becomes a task when the weekly delivery gets delayed," said a senior staff nurse responsible for this duty. At present, approximately 1800 to 2000 linen items are sent twice a week to BMC's central laundry. These include patient dresses, staff uniforms, bedsheets, and pillow covers.

Responding to the issue, Ahire said, "We try to not have any delays in the washing and delivery of the linens. However, certain technical issues are not even in our hands because of which there might be some delays at times." Meanwhile, Bhagwati Hospital laundry supervisor Suresh Rathod said, "Though this is a smaller hospital as compared to other hospitals like Shatabdi, it faces the same problem. If we have a washing unit closer to the hospital, the process will be easier and faster."

Official Speak

"So far, we have received such a proposal only from Shatabdi hospital. BMC has sanctioned a total of Rs 10 crore for this project, and the tendering process has been completed," said Dr Chandrakant Pawar, chief medical superintendent of BMC's peripheral hospitals. The tender sanctioned includes recruitment of staff to run the department for three years and also procurement of machinery and other materials required for the same.

"While some basic washing machines have been procured, we are yet to submit a detailed list of machines to the contractors," said the senior medical officer. Apart from that, KB Bhabha Hospital of Bandra is also planning to establish its own CSSD. "This is planned as part of the second phase of hospital renovation. We are yet to know if it will be outsourced and done in the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, or we will have to do it completely," said Dr Vinod Khade, senior medical officer at the hospital.

The medical officer of Shatabdi Hospital also mentioned that they may allow other hospitals in the vicinity to make use of this service once it is functional. "Whether to provide the service free of cost or whether to charge other hospitals is not decided yet. But allowing other hospitals to use this service will definitely help in the smooth circulation of sterile linens within hospitals," said the medical officer.

The department will enable the hospital to...
£ Maintain an accurate record of the effectiveness of the cleaning, disinfection, and sterilisation processes.
£ Avoid delays in linen management.
£ Strive for uniformity and simplicity in the trays and sets that the department provides.
£ Maintain an adequate inventory of supplies and equipment.
£ Monitor and enforce controls necessary to prevent cross-infection according to infection control policies.
£ Establish and maintain sterile processing and distribution standards.
£ Operate efficiently, resulting in a reduction of overhead expenses.