Eight doctors cater to over 250 Covid-19 patients each day at Thane Civil hospital

THANE: Around eight doctors in one day cater to over 250 Covid-19 patients at the state-run Civil hospital and with the increasing number of Covid-19 patients in the city, the authorities fear that they will not be able to provide adequate medical staff to patients.
The authorities stated that they are in dire need of doctors as there are over 250 patients being treated at Civil hospital, which is the only government hospital in the city treating Covid-19 patients.
“There are currently two physicians and one anaesthetists at the hospital but we need more. Especially an anaesthetist, as we not only have patients like pregnant women but even get emergency cases,” said Dr Kailash Pawar, civil surgeon at Thane Civil hospital.
It is learnt that earlier a few days back a pregnant women had to be rushed to Nair hospital due to lack of an anaesthetist at the hospital.
It was recently that the Guardian minister Eknath Shinde had announced increasing 150 beds at the hospital. The hospital authorities stated that if it happens, it will be impossible to handle patients without more staff.
“There are eight doctors taking rounds throughout the day. Three doctors work in a shift which are – two MBBS or above doctors and one BMS doctor. There are 24 medical officers. We have 300 beds and at a time at least 250 patients are under treatment, this includes 25 ICU beds,” said a doctor from the hospital.
The hospital stated that they have written letters to both the Thane Municipal Corporation and Deputy Director of Health Services (DDHS) asking for more staff. They claim to have even requested the private practitioners to help but they denied to do so.
Not only did the authorities confirmed about having less doctors but even stated that they do not have enough nursing staff.
“We have around 110 nursing staff on paper out of which some are on sick leave, few retired, the ones above 55 are asked not to work, some pregnant etc. So on duty there are around 70 nurses. Out of these around 28 are Covid-19 positive, so only 42 nursing staff are working. We have been given eight nurses by DDHS so far but it’s inadequate,” said a staff member from the hospital.