Is Jehangir Hospital in a state of emergency? -- Agarwaltimes

COO admits that elevators and internal communication systems — a lifeline for patients — require an overhaul; promises speedy redressal.

One of the city's premier hospitals — Jehangir Hospital — seems to be running on defunct emergency services; and unable to bear the hospital's apathy, both patients and their relatives raised an alarm with the management on Monday afternoon.

Late on Sunday night, when Tushar Parekh took the elevator up to the sixth floor to visit a relative, the elevator they had boarded — usually meant to carry patients and in time of emergencies — got stuck abruptly in the middle of two floors, the fifth and sixth for 45 minutes, leaving them in a state of panic. Others inside the lift tried to rescue themselves but in vain as the emergency phone, used to make calls to the hospital's internal administration, was defunct as well.

Said Parekh, "We were visiting a cousin, who was operated for a fractured hip at the hospital. When we boarded the lift at around 11:30 pm, it suddenly got stuck, leaving us in a helpless state. There was no phone network and no liftman. After being stuck for over 40 minutes, some people who sensed an emergency gathered around and freed us." His wife Nita said, "This is a major emergency lapse. Just imagine if there were a patient being carried to the top floor at the time.

It would have been a nightmare rescuing the whole team from the defunct elevator. As for me, I was ready to collapse with claustrophobia."

Anil Kasbe and Shekhar Jadhav, relatives of patients admitted there, were sharing the elevator with the Parekhs that evening. Kasbe, in fact, suffered bruises on his leg that got stuck while he was being rescued from the lift. He said, "I have a severe inflammation on my leg. The hospital should pick up the expenses of my treatment. I seem to have escaped a major accident - what if something unfortunate like a permanent damage to a limb had occurred during the rescue operation."

"And, as if this was not enough, after we emerged from the elevator, the bouncers and the staff actually blamed us for not operating the elevator correctly," said Parekh.

Jadhav, kin of a patient admitted for a renal problem, shared that it was not just the elevators but also that alarms in the rooms and the intercom system have been lying defunct for sometime now. "It becomes extremely difficult in cases of emergency when the nursing staff has to be summoned in case of medical attention.

Each time the need arises, we have to either scream for help or go out looking for a nurse. At such times, we have had to deal with arrogance and tantrums on the part of the staff."

Surprisingly, the hospital's chief operating officer (COO), Ravi Kiran G, accepted all the flaws mentioned by the patients. He said, "A similar incident of an elevator getting stuck mid-way had occurred in October. In fact, this came up in an audit report submitted to us by a senior management team of Apollo Hospitals, which had strictly instructed us to have all our elevators repaired. There are six elevators at the hospital and most of them need repair work. The technical team will arrive on Saturday to begin the renovation process."

Kiran also assured that all internal communication system between patients and the caregivers will also be overhauled. "We have now planned to install an automatic rescue device in all our lifts. The device helps in sensing failures in the lift or the electricity and takes control of its operation. It not only carries the people stuck in the lift to the nearest floor but also opens the door so that people can make a safe exit. We will process this plan so that it can be accepted by our management soon."


►► An audit report submitted by a senior management team of Apollo Hospitals had strictly underlined that our elevators needed repair — all six of them

- RAVI KIRAN G COO, Jehangir Hospital Source: Pune Mirror

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