The financial capital of India is inching close to half a lakh COVID-19 cases. The medical and administrative infrastructure of the Mumbai civic body is facing serious issues of being overstretched and overworked for more than two months now.
Amid the crisis, a video has emerged claiming shortage of nurses and ward boys at the civic-run King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital.
The hospital’s Dean, Dr Hemant Deshmukh, told CNN-News18 that the video is misleading as it was shot by a resident doctor shift change was underway.
“It is of Ward 4. At the time when this video was shot, the Class 4 and the nursing staff had a changeover of duty. At KEM, we run at least 15 such wards and this was the changeover time for only Ward 4. The impression that the video gives that the hospital has a huge shortage of nurses or other staff is not true.
"There is no shortage of resident doctors, nurses or serving staff. Anybody who sees this video gets an impression that only doctors are working in COVID-19 wards. But there are at least 15 such dedicated wards, all of them for critical patients. So we have over 450 critical patient beds. And all these wards are being managed by a team of senior consultants, consultants, faculty members, resident doctors, nursing staff and Class 4 employees,” Dr Deshmukh said.
However, the workers’ union has claimed that shortage of medical staff is a reality across many civic-run as well as private hospitals in Mumbai.
The Opposition BJP has targeted the Uddhav Thackeray-led coalition government for the shortage of medical staff and lack of availability of beds for patients.
Leaders of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) have also blamed the administration for its failure to gauge the lack of availability of staff and make essential arrangements.
A functionary of MNS, which has an active union among KEM employees, said the problem is common across many hospitals.
Several workers at KEM Hospital whom CNN-News18 spoke to also said their concerns were genuine even as they continued to serve in these trying conditions.
“This is not just about KEM. It is true about many civic-run, state-run and private hospitals. There is shortage of medical staff. There are no doctors, nurses or ward boys. Also, people are scared for their safety.
"MESMA (Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act) should have been applied against these workers. They cannot sit at home at the time of a medical emergency like this. The administration should have anticipated this and should have worked to resolve this shortage,” MNS union leader Sandeep Deshpande said.
However, workers at KEM have a different view of the crisis. While they accepted that it is their duty to serve at this critical point, they argued that many nurses are also breast-feeding mothers and cannot be put on COVID-19 duty.
“Yes, it is true that duty in the dedicated wards are being repeated only to a select few. This is because many of our nurses are feeding mothers and cannot be put on COVID-19 duty? Also, there are many above the age of 55 years and have comorbidities. These people are automatically exempted. It is extremely taxing to wear those PPEs for eight hours straight, and to be in the Covid wards. One cannot drink water or eat food and use the washroom.
"Many of our new nursing students are feeling hypoglycaemic. They cannot be blamed. It is not easy. But we continue to do our duty. But we expect that there is better understanding among our doctors and other staff members. We too are humans, and we are ourselves falling sick,” a nurse serving in a dedicated ward told CNN-News18 on condition of anonymity.
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