Patients forced to share bed in Mumbai KEM hospital

Mumbai: Two patients suffering from different ailments were made to sleep on the same bed at the civic-run KEM Hospital on Friday. While one of them is a cataract patient, the other is suffering from asthma. KEM Hospital is an 1,800-bed hospital, but the hospital authorities say that this situation arose since all the other beds are full.

Cataract patient Tulsidas  Patil (55) and asthma patient Fulchand Baldev Bharatwaj (65) are sharing the same bed at the hospital even though the former faces the risk of infection. Mr Patil underwent a cataract surgery on Friday morning. Mr Bharatwaj told The Asian Age, “I have asthma and have been feeling so uncomfortable on this small bed that I am unable to sleep. I am being made to share the bed since there are no available beds in the hospital.”

Mr Patil said, “I have had a cataract operation and am unable to see since there is medicine in my eyes.” He said, “I am too uncomfortable to sleep. I need to rest. I have other health issues such as a stomach infection. Thus, after the operation, I have been kept in the medicine ward.”

However, KEM acting dean Dr Anil Gwalani said, “There are lots of patients who come to our hospital and we can’t say no to any patient. If a bed is not available, then we make adjustments for a few hours. But we make sure that a new bed is available soon.”

Dr Gwalani added:  “The hospital has around 390 staff and physicians and almost 550 resident doctors, who treat about 1.8 million out-patients and 78,000 in-patients annually and provide both basic care and advanced treatment facilities in all fields of medicine and surgery.”