Water cuts may affect admissions at city hospitals
Sakaal Times: Prevailing water cuts if continued, may affect admissions at city hospitals which are facing water cuts. Hospitals say the situation may force them to think on admitting only emergency cases. Measures like one patient-one relative have already been enforced at some hospitals.
With the water cuts continued in the city for 10th day, city hospitals are facing severe water scarcity problem affecting the daily operations of hospitals. Almost all major hospitals have started purchasing tanker water to meet daily requirements.
Bharati Hospital, having intake capacity of 350 to 400 patients, has already restricted relatives of patients from utilising water from the hospital. “We are facing too much hardship due to water cuts. Bore well is the main source of water for the hospital and if that water too goes on decreasing, we have to restrict the admissions,” said medical director of the hospital Dr Shahaji Deshmukh. The management has notified staff members and patients’ relatives not to utilise water for washing lunch boxes or clothes, as currently the hospital is depending on purchased tanker water to fulfill the daily water requirement of 3 lakh litres, he added.
Similar is the case with KEM Hospital having 600-bed capacity. The medical administrator of the hospital, Dr V L Yemul told Sakal Times that till date no patients had been refused, but if the problem continued, only emergency cases would be admitted. “Currently we are using treated and chlorinated water of the well on the hospital premises for external water consumption like cleanliness. But such hard and contaminated water is of no use for equipment like dialysis unit. For patients’ treatment also sterile water is needed. As the hospital needs around 80,000 litres of drinking water, we have to curtail the number of patients,” said Dr Yemul. Currently the hospital gets water from the civic body on alternate days.
Sancheti Hospital, which also relies on tanker water, has strictly restricted extra relatives. “We prefer ‘No relatives’ policy these days. The hospital as a whole, including two buildings has capacity of 165 beds with around 70 per cent occupancy. Although right now there is no need of curtailing the number of patients, we have to restrict their relatives to fulfill the daily water requirement of around 7,000 litres,” informed hospital authorities.
For Deenanath Hospital, the problem is not too severe to tackle. The manager, civil works of the hospital I M Patel said that the hospital had a bore well and a treatment plant. “The process of softening of bore well water is costlier. We need around 2.5 lakh litres of water daily and have to purchase 15 to 20 water tankers per day. Yet the hospital would not refuse any patient as far as possible,” he said.
Ruby Hall Clinic has a successful practice of rain water harvesting. Hospital administrator Col Sharma said that there was less impact of water crisis on routine activities of the hospital.
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